Studio Visit & Conversation with Isabella Mellado

FEATURING TAROT CARD PULLS FROM TAROT READER LAUREN OBERLIN

Join us for an intimate studio visit and conversation with Isabella Mellado! Mellado’s paintings are to the artist as sigils are to the witch, and are a visual exploration ofself actualization through relationships—coven, platonic, romantic, familial & self. Through painting, she underlines queer trauma and Catholic shame by making reference to religious symbolism found in renaissance and medieval art. By relating gargoyles, demons and angels as seen in Catholic art to the contemporary queer coded figure in their paintings, Mellado questions moralizing tales as seen in the European art canon. Mellado’s work centralizes queer narrative, womanhood and latinidad as she has lived it, framing it with symbolism taken from mythology, folklore, tarot, astrology and Puerto Rican pop culture. On the 19th Mellado will walk us through how all of the above informs her practice and we'll explore her latest large-scale triptych that marks a turning point in the evolution of her visual language. After we hear from Mellado, members will have the opportunity to have a tarot card pulled by Tarot reader Lauren Oberlin! (Photo: Isabella Mellado in her Chicago studio. Photographer: Dayson Roa. Courtesy of the artist.)