Melissa Fry | Hotel Room Art / New General Catalogue

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Melissa Fry, “Hotel Room Art / New General Catalogue,” 2024

(courtesy of the Gallery)

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 7, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

I started the Hotel Room Art series with the intention of playing with colour, shapes, and paint flow to make paintings that are lively, yet peaceful and calming. Initially, I struggled with the idea that in order to have value, all of my art should be profound in some way, such as being linked to memory, culture, or the power of the natural world. I used to judge my own art by this standard: if it wouldn’t look out-of-place in a mid-budget hotel room, then the work had no value (aside from the enjoyment I felt, and whatever I learned from painting it). I’ve since relaxed my judgement of my own art. If my art enhances the atmosphere of a space, even if it’s simply aesthetically pleasing, then it has value. I deliberately chose the mid-budget hotel room to be the intended display setting for this collection in order to flip the script. The repetitive style of this collection is evocative of mass-produced paintings that a hotel might buy in bulk to decorate rooms. While beautiful art improves the atmosphere of any space, I believe that handmade art adds warmth and connection that mass-produced reproductions lack, while maintaining a thematically consistent and pleasing aesthetic.

New General Catalogue:

The collection New General Catalogue is a series of painted nebulae, galaxies, and other celestial bodies derived from Hubble images. The works are named after the New General Catalogue identification number assigned to each celestial body. I created this series for two reasons; to overcome the technical challenge of faithfully reproducing Hubble images, and to bring outer space down to earth–to link the intimacy and humanity of handmade art with the enormity and vastness of space.

Melissa Fry is originally from Nova Scotia, but she moved to Alberta so long ago that her salty accent is barely detectable. Her self-taught artistic practice is shaped by the changing landscapes of Alberta. The boreal forest, bodies of water, and the night sky are the primary subjects of her work. In recent years she has branched out into other styles such as abstract pours, botanical illustrations, and outer space. Her works have been displayed at commercial spaces in Lethbridge, such as Tweed, the Slice, and the Penny coffee house.