Melanie Russell describes her work as ‘an investigation into flatness’. In her compositions, figure and ground are given equal priority; the ‘subject has to fight it out with the ‘backdrop’ for the viewer’s attention. It’s not just a visual levelling; the implication is that objects, patterns and people all exist in the same flat world. A decorative domestic scene is turned into an image of human-objects overwhelmed by their surroundings.

Russell tests how far a figurative image can be pushed before it becomes unrecognisable. The figure, which is a focal point in both composition and content, serves as a point of…

Melanie Russell describes her work as ‘an investigation into flatness’. In her compositions, figure and ground are given equal priority; the ‘subject has to fight it out with the ‘backdrop’ for the viewer’s attention. It’s not just a visual levelling; the implication is that objects, patterns and people all exist in the same flat world. A decorative domestic scene is turned into an image of human-objects overwhelmed by their surroundings.

Russell tests how far a figurative image can be pushed before it becomes unrecognisable. The figure, which is a focal point in both composition and content, serves as a point of empathy for the viewer, yet Russell is just as interested in the qualities of the domestic interior and the juxtaposition of clashing patterns.

Her current body of work continues her investigation of spatial ambiguity, and focuses even more so on positives and negative shapes and spaces. The nature of a cut out through the medium of collage, as seen in this new work, encourages varying, experimental and more challenging compositions. The use of blocks of colour means that the work can be executed at a faster, illustrating the excitement and inventiveness in the process of making for the artist.

A graduate of the University of Wales, Russell has exhibited widely in London. She was recently one of the winners of the Jerwood Contemporary Painters Prize, 2007, which has made her work even more desirable in recent months.