ARTIST STATEMENT:

My practice is focused on handwoven sculptures and functional furniture. I refer to the histories and methodologies of art, design, craft, architecture and industrial manufacturing. Materials are borrowed from each of these fields and combined into works that collapse these disciplines. 

The selection of materials is the most crucial element in my handwoven work and my primary means of communicating emotional themes. Each material functions as a building block for a concept, due to the viewer’s conscious or subconscious associations with each material. The interaction of several materials leads the viewer toward recognizing a theme, unlocking personal meaning and triggering an emotional response in the process. Abstract compositions and materiality give physical form to abstract emotional concepts.

My current furniture series examines how furniture’s ability to shape how bodies are positioned in space can directly shape more meaningful social interactions and psychological well-being. Hyper-functional objects flexibly adapt to social interactions and allow the user’s body to assume positions that make room for intimacy, eye contact and direct acknowledgment of others in the room.  These soft works conform to the body while subverting expectations through their functionality or illusory effects achieved through material layerings, inviting the user to explore new possibilities with their bodies. My furniture works refers to the history of design and research in the fields of anthropology and psychology in order to address the ongoing crisis of alienation in the digital era. 

These proposals encourage viewers/users to more fully consider their physical relationship to space and the potential for objects to facilitate meaningful sensory experiences.

Biography:

Luam Melake (b. 1986 in San Diego, CA) received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley in Interdisciplinary Field Studies majoring in Architecture with a minor in Art History in 2008. Solo and two-person exhibitions include Furnishing Feelings at R & Company, New York (2023), Sensitive Forms at Parker Gallery, Los Angeles (2021), Luam Melake’s Curious Hybrids, Artskop and Versant Sud, France (2020) and Without Qualities at Addis Fine Art, New York (2018). Selected group exhibitions include For the Birds at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York (2022), Objects USA 2020 at R & Company, New York (2021), Transatlantico at Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ (2020), Sumegne / Ngaparou 2 at Fondation Blachère, Apt, France (2020). She has been Artist-in-Residence at prominent institutions, including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York (2017-18 and 2022) Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha (2019), Fondation Blachere in Apt, France (2019) and was awarded the Female Design Council Grant in 2021. Melake lives and works in New York and is currently a senior materials researcher at Parsons School of Design and serves on the board of the Museum of Arts and Design.