Melissa Middleberg
Oil painter Melissa Middleberg (b.1989, New York NY) has had a lifelong fascination with old family photos: ever-curious about what the world was like before she was in it. As a child, she lingered at the dinner table to listen to the adults talk, hungry for both a romantic past and promising future she believed somehow would be hers one day; wistful for a time that didn’t belong to her.
She’s grown out of this longing–recognizing in adulthood that nostalgia can be dangerously deceptive–but the curiosity never left. Now she looks at family photos with an archaeological eye: searching for clues about the people in them and which parts of them might still be alive in her. Painting from these photos is a close reading, an attention to detail that allows for both exploration and indulgence. Her retro-warm color palette is evocative and welcoming.
