Melora Griffis' grief cave 1 (his) is a 30 x 42 inch mixed media painting with sewing on stretched muslin, executed in acrylic, glitter, fabric and thread, in a palette of deep midnight blues. earth tones, pale glittering greens, and pink. A combination of found textiles is pieced together with intentionally uneven hand stitching in various colored threads, creating a vibrant central composition surrounded by deep blue. Iridescent glitter catches the light, effectively moving our eye over the textured and layered surface. The artist creates her ground, sewing together pieces of fabric onto the muslin support, each with personal significance, before painting. Alluding at once to the fragility of loss and the subsequent process of grieving, this work proposes a kind of celebratory mending. Griffis states, "an inherent, intuitive occupancy of an interior psychological world exists [in my work], and I trust in the gravity of the personal paralleling public import." The immediacy of her confidant and painterly gestures, together with a vivid, sensitive palette, carries a commitment to the truth of things.
In his ARTnews review of Griffis' solo exhibition at 571 Projects NYC, critic Doug McClemont wrote, "With their (...) dramatic use of color, Griffis' works conveyed the impression that memories and retellings can be strangely cloaked and yet, nevertheless, poignant." Griffis' paintings are always personal while delving into universal themes of curiosity, memory and desire: enduring investigations arising from her dedication to authentic expression.
A native New Yorker, Griffis received her BFA from The Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts (Montpelier, VT). She has had solo exhibitions at the Pamela Williams Gallery (Amagansett, NY), Lizan Tops Gallery and AE Gallery (both East Hampton, NY), Whitney Art Works (Greenport, NY), The Re Institute (Millerton, NY) and 571 Projects (New York, NY). Her work has been included in group shows at Edward Thorp Gallery (New York, NY), White Columns (New York, NY), Bowman/Bloom Gallery (New York, NY), Michael Steinberg (New York, NY), Silas Marder (Bridgehampton, NY), Ille Arts, (Amagansett, NY), Sara Nightingale Gallery, (Sag Harbor, NY) and Boltax Gallery (Shelter Island, NY) among others. Griffis has received fellowships from Le Moulin à Nef (Auvillar, France), Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus (Schwandorf, Germany), the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, (Ithaca, NY), Schloss Pluschow (Mecklenberg-Vorpommern, Germany), The Edward F. Albee Foundation (Montauk, NY) and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (Amherst, VA). Melora Griffis lives and works in New York City.