New Zealand b. 1974

Amy was born in Wellington in 1974.

She has travelled widely throughout Asia, Europe, Morocco and India and currently lives and works in Auckland.

Forms from ocean and land create starting points for Amy Melchior's strikingly beautiful compositions. The ancient process encaustic painting (combining beeswax, pigment and heat) allows for layering of vivid colour. There is an organic quality captured through this traditional process of making. Melchior describes how each layer (consisting of raw beeswax mixed with damar resin, then strained into small tins, where coloured pigment is added) is painted on and warmed with a heat gun, making the surface liquid, so she can "...bring images through from the layers beneath." The effect is luminous and the natural scent of beeswax is a feature of the work.

Encaustic painting was developed over 2,500 years ago. The ancient Greeks utilised this technique on the hulls of boats, the Egyptians for masks. Artists such as Jasper Johns have continued to explore this ancient process as a medium for painting.

Melchior’s most recent paintings explore the “global plight of the humble bee” with particular interest in the effect of colony collapse syndrome. The works are utopian in their approach, presenting pollen and seed pods in a place where “...wild hives drip with waxy honey”.

"I am not going toﾠlook for the reason why certain beings have a pressing need to paint" ﾠAmy Melchior

 

Selected Exhibitions:

2013 Solo show Morph, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland

2013 Auckland Art Fair

2011 Solo show Scratching the Surface, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland

2009 Solo show South Coast Art Gallery, Wellington

2007 Solo show Compose Art Gallery, Auckland

2007 Group show Compose Art Gallery, Auckland

2006 Solo show Compose Art Gallery, Auckland

2006 Solo show at South Coast Gallery, Wellington

2006 Group show Compose Art Gallery, Auckland

2005 Group show Compose Art Gallery, Auckland

 

Awards, Reviews and Achievements:

2006 Finalist in the Waikato Contemporary New Zealand Art Awards

2004 Finalist in Goldwater awards