Fernando Melani

The work of the Italian artist Fernando Melani (1907-1985) is just becoming known in the United States. Melani thought of art “as a means and not as an end, a means for fixing the construction of the universe.” He wanted art to act “on the nerves,” he wanted “a flow more subtle than the slightest thought.” And indeed some of his works are so delicate and so fizzy, their subject seems to be the tiniest particle in the universe. Other works are expansive – they’re like sketches for the cosmos. Melani was inspired by neoplasticism, conceptualism, minimal art, arte povera. He loved balance and movement. He meditated on the nature of space in drawings, paintings, reliefs, and sculptures in-the-round. Though Melani played with many different materials and techniques, his works don’t look like exercises or experiments. This is a quirky achievement, but it’s also visually involving and appealing.


Linda Seller

In Linda Seller’s still lifes, everything is placed with great care. Her love of the Dutch still-life masters shows both in the precision of her drawing and her play with perspective. While Seller works in pastel, her tight handling of the medium often suggests egg tempera. In Still life with Black Paper, there are brown paper bags, pots, cloth, and an enigmatic black shape that curls and curves. In another painting, Studio Still Life with Green Jacket, we seem to enter on the left, where the artist has hung her jacket. Then we look over to the table, and up to a piece of cloth tacked on the wall. The cloth resembles a wing and makes a contrast with the prosaic jacket. In the back, a male and female mannequin face each other; on the right side, a hot plate with a tea kettle adds a homey, down-to-earth touch.