Daniel V. Melim: Song from within

There is a kind of vertigo in the encounter with the paintings of Daniel V. Melim. It is not just a vertigo caused by the play of scales or the overlapping of figures, but a deeper feeling of disorientation. About Through the images that the artist constructs, the feeling of entering a universe that seems familiar and that, at the same time, escapes the possibility of being recognized, is heightened. Masks, partially hidden bodies, small figures that mysteriously appear, presences with their backs to the observer, flowers that assume an almost monumental dimension and what seemed to be a landscape transforms, at times, into the very event of the image. They seem to exist, latent, worlds that contain other worlds, bringing us closer to an experience of something that is felt before being understood. The figures represented, not being portraits per se, are ambiguous presences that escape a single interpretation. By not revealing the identity of the characters, the artist opens space for the construction of a collective image universe, between the human, ancestry, ritual and the fantastic. The same operation happens with flowers, present in the paintings that are in the interior room on the lower floor of the gallery. When they occupy the center of the composition, they cease to be simply plant elements and seem to acquire a character quality. We are thus witnessing an inversion: the human becomes anonymous and the vegetable gains presence, shifting the usual hierarchies between what we consider subject and what we consider setting. Read more Toggle Painting