Curations with Mel Reese: Goodbye 2020

We did it! We made it to the end of the absolutely insane year that was 2020… huzzah! ;)

As the end of the year draws nearer we begin to reflect on where we’ve been and look forward to where we are heading. This past year we’ve seen a lot of turmoil, experienced countless ups-and-downs, so it’s always helpful to reflect on what has been a constant good in our lives... through it all. For all of us here at Art in Res, ‘Art’ has been that constant good, that constant beacon of light within our lives and we hope it has been for you as well. If not, we highly recommend you make looking at, engaging with, and buying Art your New Year’s resolution –– it’s a good one!

So with that in mind, this week artist and curator Mel Reese brings together a collection of Art in Res pieces that reflect on the tumultuous year we’ve had and look forward to the many wonderful years still to come. Some of these pieces may even inspire you to get a head start on that New Year's resolution you made and jumpstart that new art collection! Scroll through the post to see Mel’s placement of each piece, as well as how the selected works come together in a thoughtful, coalescent collection.

So pop that champagne and get dressed into your fanciest clothes as we scroll through this week’s curation –– happy browsing!

It’s time to say goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021; to a hopefully much happier, brighter, and all around better future. The sun in Andrea Caldarise’s lavender ice cream itches my nose seems to be a simultaneous sunset and sunrise –– setting on the old, the exhaustive past, the horrors of this past year as well as rising on the new, illuminating a brighter, happier, healthier, and more hopeful future. Paired with Amelia Carley’s futuristic, sparkling blue landscape in Violaceous Basin we perhaps catch a glimpse of that more colorful future.

Cheers to that!

One thing I know we all missed this year was air travel. It’s hard to imagine that we would ever miss being crammed into cramped spaces for hours on end like over-packed sardines, but we do… we very much do. If you are anything like me, you have not left a 50 mile radius since the global shutdown and you are beginning to forget what air travel was like. It’s like traveling to space –– completely foreign. Perhaps there are giant alien-like squids floating around the dark skies like we see in Dan Bina’s It’s the beginning? One of my favorite things to experience during air travel is what we see in Justin Shull’s Edgewater –– that classic view out the window, looking down over the city-scapes. It reminds us to look at things from different perspectives.

Heading into a new year, with not one, but two, successful vaccines in addition to new leadership taking control, I think everyone is hopeful that travel and vacation will pick back up again very soon.

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Big Milkyway

by Mark Milroy

48 x 48" •  Oil on Canvas

Milkyway by Mark Milroy is the magic we need this New Years. A sparkling waterfall of awe and splendor. Fireworks to end all fireworks. Celebrating a journey into the unknown, the wonder of tomorrow.

What better way to celebrate the end of the year of screens than to celebrate safely, alone, but together via zoom. This group of paintings on photographs by Michelle Holman reminds us of all the ingenious ways we’ve enjoyed celebrating across all distances. Get that confetti ready, pop those individual sized champagne bottles, and pour yourself a drink with friends and family as we ring a year where hopefully we never have to zoom again. (If only!)

But alone, on screen is not the only way to celebrate this season. If you are responsible, get tested, and wear masks, gathering together in small groups could be a fun option as well! Gather ‘round the piano of a dear friend's home and sing boozy melodies together like in Sylvie Mayer’s Piano. Or perhaps, if you are feeling brave, you can bundle up and bring many blankets to join another couple in frozen, huddled together splendor outside your favorite neighborhood bar. Kathy Halper’s Greenpoint Bar brings me such personal joy and reminds me of countless fond memories of enjoying my own Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint!

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Night Lights

by Viktoriya Basina

7 x 7" •  Oil on Canvas

This scene of Night Lights by Viktoriya Basina embodies serenity. When I look at this piece, I breathe deep and smell the cool, crisp, fresh air of this magical glowing landscape. I picture this scene in some far off land, a place we have yet to travel to. It represents what we still have yet to discover, enjoy, and embrace. It looks to what is next… and isn’t that just what we need heading into this new year?

Waiting for sunlight

by Sara Galkin

24 x 34" •  Oil on canvas

With the winter solstice behind us and the days slowly staying lighter longer, we celebrate that which we have survived –– what we have persevered together. A New Year brings new hope; hope for brighter days ahead. Each winter, as we trudge through the snow or the desolate farmlands it is easy to forget that every year, in cyclic dependency, a new day is born and the season of renewal begins again. Sarah Galkin's Waiting for Sunlight is the perfect representation of all the vibrant renewal that inevitably awaits us. Let’s all raise a glass to 2021 being the year of that renewal.