Melissa Catanese - Brown Bag Presentation



Melissa Catanese works from an inventory of photographic images, both personal and anonymous, to build elliptical narratives that take their shape as artist’s books and wall installations. Her work explores the elasticity of meaning in a photograph; where the object is both an artifact of the past and an open-ended container of ambiguity and potential. She has been editing from the vast photography collection of Peter J. Cohen, a celebrated trove of more than 30,000 vernacular and found anonymous photographs from the early to mid-twentieth century. Enfolding photographs from her archive with these found images, she questions the authorship and transparency of a photograph while pursuing readings that drift away from simple typology into something more personal, intuitive and openly poetic.

Catanese is the founder of Spaces Corners, an artist-run photography bookshop and project space and is the author of Dive Dark Dream Slow (2012), Dangerous Women (2013), Hells Hollow Fallen Monarch (2015), and Voyagers (2018). She will be discussing her process and sharing her artist's books and recent activities.

All are welcome to attend this Brown Bag Presentation!

Location Information

Room B34, Painting Studio, Frick Fine Arts Building