Melinda Braathen Norwegian/American, b. 1985

Melinda Braathen (b.1985) is a Norwegian-American painter based in Los Angeles, USA. Braathen’s psychologically charged paintings explore the experience of landscape, where the material and energetic interplay with the protean world of our sensations. The environments Braathen creates often feel like they could break open or shift at any moment. Mysterious light heightens the drama of the works and further evokes enigmatic and unseen energies. The shifts between elements of skillful figuration and expressively ambient abstraction depict a reality of the world that is often stranger and more alive, while simultaneously addressing its frightening unpredictability and constantly shifting essence. A considerable portion of the painting’s surface is often built up with small brush marks that simultaneously bring out the recognizable qualities of the painted subject while ushering in a deeper sensitivity to the environment’s elemental and energetic forces.

Melinda Braathen has earned her BA from Bard College. Her recent exhibitions and projects include “Charged Bodies,” Golsa, Oslo (2023), Art Paris 2023, Paris (2023), “Currents,” Baert Gallery, LA (2022), “Summer Group Exhibition,” Baert Gallery, LA (2021), UNTITLED Art Fair, Miami Beach (2020), “Works on Paper,” Baert Gallery, LA (2020), “Sluice Over the Braids Sweet Forming,” Eastside International, LA (2019), and “Color Is An Act Of Reason,” Baert Gallery, LA (2019).