Melanie Guatelli is a painter currently based in the North East of Scotland. Following a career in ecology and environmental management, and alongside motherhood, she studied painting at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen.
Her art practice considers our relationships with other organisms. She questions our perceptions of what is wild or natural. She considers human exceptionalism, environmental degradation, the impact of capitalism and how we value nature. Recently she has been influenced by the work of women such as Donna Haraway, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Ursula K. Le Guin, Naomi Klein and Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Although predominantly an oil painter, an important part of Melanie’s process is walking, photography, collage and model-making. She uses these methods as a way of deeply contemplating ideas of nature and the ‘other’. These lead to paintings that are familiar yet unsettling – works that invite the viewer to take a moment to ponder their own entanglement with the environment.
www.melanie-guatelli-art.com
@melguatelli
