Laconia Gallery is pleased to present a solo show by Rachel Mello, That Space Between Flying and Falling.

Cut silhouettes hang from the ceiling and cast shadows to create an installation simultaneously evoking an emotional landscape and a tangible cityscape. Using a variety of media to explore the interaction of the internal with external, physical world, Mello brings her backgrounds in scenic art and architecture to her fine art. Here she paints clouds and skies in rich hues, on free-hanging cut silhouettes of urban forms.

They’re paintings, but they present themselves in space without a frame. They’re sculptural objects casting shadows, but they’re flat. They’re conceived of and created together, in a way that an installation is not usually composed of paintings. You are invited to find your own way to experience That Space Between Flying and Falling.

Mello has been a resident at Vermont Studio Center, and at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, has been a three-time recipient of the Somerville Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award, and a finalist for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Artist Fellowship in Painting; she works extensively with community art around the Boston Metro area, especially in Somerville, and this year became an Associate Member at Kingston Gallery. She has an MFA from Brandeis University, a BFA and a BArch from Rhode Island School of Design.