Statement

"I choose to work with a limited palette in both my paintings and sculptures to emphasize the cohesiveness of the various shapes and textures. My work has a layered, built upon quality creating a series of complex relationships throughout the surfaces. My paintings integrate recycled elements from previously discarded efforts which have been cut up to become the building materials for new work, along with string, brown paper and anything that fulfills the tactile assertion of her surfaces."

"My recent sculpture embodies the process of extracting painful memories or vexing moments through externalizing them into a three dimensional form. Significant of these sculptures is the presence of raw compartments, some open, some closed and sometimes stuffed with debris or other material. These serve as metaphorical storage spaces, where one filters the over-flow of emotional baggage, putting it aside to move forward or to simply move it out of the way for the moment."

Bio

Melissa Starke was raised in Long Branch, NJ. She holds the positions of Department Coordinator for the Fine Arts Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology as well as Curator and Co-Director for the artist run NFP Urban Studio Unbound in Yonkers, NY.  She is an instructor and the art department liaison in FIT's precollege program, specializing in Color Theory and Mixed Media. Starke has exhibited her paintings and sculpture in various New York City venues and facilitated large scale public art installations for a number of satellite art fairs during Art Basel Miami from 2008-2018. Starke holds a AA in Business Administration, BFA in Fine Arts and is a 2020 Art Market MA candidate.