Dawn Mellor

First monograph

In her paintings and drawings, Dawn Mellor (*1970, UK) uses black humour to deconstruct the cult of the star (which appears to have been chosen in our society as a substitute for religion) and its believer–the fan. The majority of female protagonists in her works are music icons such as Madonna, Courtney Love or Britney Spears, but there are also appearances by film actresses and figures such as Audrey Hepburn, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz (alias Judy Garland), or “glamourous” politicians such as Hilary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice. All are subordinated to new narrative contextualization and equipped with new symbolisms and iconographies. The painting style Mellor uses refers simultaneously to Surrealism, the colorfulness of Pop art and the underground trashiness of a Joe Coleman. The artist functions as a link, by drawing out a fictive role–whether she plays a lovelorn, a sadistic voyeur, a pathological pornographer, or a murderous stalker. Through these self-attributed “painting” roles Mellor explores the moral codes communicated through mass entertainment.

Published with the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich.