Melissa Capasso makes work that defies categorical genre. Working improvisationally with color, line, imagery, and pattern, psychedelic worlds are conjured from the ether presenting goddesses, gardens, and planetary landscapes. Her process reflects on a contradictory dualism that tethers abstraction with representation, symmetry with reflection, and decay with life. Her painting surfaces are both experimental and refined as the paint’s application reveals pockets of chemical reaction that explode and freeze through kaleidoscopic windows. Themes of protection, escape, and having a place of one’s own run through her visionary work. Capasso lives and works in upstate New York. She is the recipient of an Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency and an Edward F. Albee Foundation Arts Fellowship among other awards.