MELISAH MAY / SOLO EXHIBITION

10 October - 25 October, 2025

Melisha May’s practice explores domesticity, maternal experience, and the quiet chaos embedded in everyday household life. Using familiar domestic tools—brushing, scrubbing, rubbing, washing, dripping, and polishing—she transforms acts of care into physical mark-making, reflecting the repetitive, cyclical rhythms of maintaining a home and raising a child.

Her choice of polyester canvas, reminiscent of household relics, becomes a surface she erases and rebuilds, creating layered depths that speak to lived experience. Autobiographical content runs throughout her work, capturing memory and inherited maternal trauma. Gesture and colour are applied instinctively—particularly pink, which she embraces as a symbol of strength—to convey emotional and physical narratives tied to motherhood and identity.

Influenced by the female Abstract Expressionists of 1950s New York, May works with spontaneity and emotion, allowing the canvas to become a site of exploration. In this process, she gives visibility to the unseen aspects of domestic life, transforming the mundane into a powerful visual language. Her work invites connection through shared experiences of care, family history, and the resilience found in the everyday.

Opening reception: 10 October, 2025 6pm - 8pm
On view: 10 - 25 October, 2025

Location: Wester Gallery 39 Bolton St, Newcastle

Supported by: Sea Salt & Sage Catering, Young Henrys, Symphonia Wines, Heaps Normal, NON