From top left corner:
Girl on Bed, Gelatin Silver Print, Thread, 20" x 24";
Woman with Veil (Detail), Thread, Digital Print, 17" x 22";
Swimming Pool, C-print, Thread, 20" x 24";
Melissa Zexter;
Girl Running, C-print, Thread, 20" x 24";
Leopard, Gelatin Silver Print, Thread, 20" x 24";
Snow Beach (Detail);
Cardinal, Gelatin Silver Print, thread, 20" x 24"
For many years, Zexter has combined the slow and meditative process of hand-sewn embroidery with the technologically more immediate medium of photography. Her portraits and figurative work explore identity and representations of femininity. She hand stitches intricate puzzles using needle and thread over color and black and white and color photographs that she has taken. The sewn patterns are colored textured drawings, which serve as webs and grids over the photographs, providing another dimension to the images. The sewing creates a filtered experience; much the way emotions and personal history alter everyday perception.
Melissa Zexter was born in Rhode Island and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a BFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Photography from New York University.
Zexter has exhibited throughout the United States and overseas including shows at The Triennial Design Museum in Milan, Italy, The Fuller Craft Museum, MA, Robert Mann Gallery, NYC, Muriel Guepin Gallery, NYC, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, NY, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Her work has been published and reviewed in numerous publications including AfterImage, ELEPHANT, Juxtapoz, The New York Times, The Boston Herald, The New Yorker, Art New England, The Village Voice, BUST, and New York Magazine.