Melinda McDaniel
In Melinda McDaniel's work, photography becomes part of a much more expansive process resulting in an array of objects from collage to sculpture. Photographs are deconstructed then reconstructed again, remixing their original content to produce a new, and often surprising meaning. Unexposed photographic paper is exposed to light perhaps for an hour, perhaps a day, capturing something of its time and place, only to be shredded, torn, sliced or somehow fragmented, and ultimately reconfigured into elaborate sculptural objects. The work concerns itself with the nature and implications of image making, often in relation to the Self. This highly personal exploration is then communicated using a vocabulary closely akin to minimalism. McDaniel’s work is both provocatively conceptual and powerfully aesthetic.
Installations 
Other works
Twists
Swimming Pools
Resume
Photographs appear to me in pieces. When I attempt to consider a singular image that I have seen on a given day, I am left with a mix of visual information that amounts to static. I am interested in quieting and containing this static. I dissect photographs to extract their important parts. These are remixed and reorganized into works that conceptually describe the abundance of imagery in the world, or for purely aesthetic reasons. Other works volley for a quiet opposition to the constant flux of imagery that we experience in the visual currents of our day to day. I use unexposed photographic paper to create minimalist sculptures. A subtly is suggested that asks for a careful eye. Through calculated grace, light sensitive paper is filled with latent images. These images are revealed only through the shifts in color from exposure to light in a space over time. I believe that photographic images are constructed the same way that buildings are built. Time, light, and forms are structured within a space with honest precision. I apply this thinking to my work. My photographs and photographic processes are abstracted to explore the dimensionality of images that extend off of the wall and into the viewing space. When delicately combined with other materials, like wood, thread, pins and vellum, image is both seen and unseen. I want my images and their forms to be walked around, experienced beyond a singular plane, and question how else image can be.
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Art, Photography 2004
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Bachelor of Fine Art in Studio Art, focus in Photography 2001
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Spare Parts 2012
Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, NY
Melinda McDaniel 2009
Carrie Haddad Photographs, Hudson, NY
Absence | Presence 2004
The Clean Space, Columbus, OH
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Perceptions: Art + Design Faculty Exhibition 2014
Opalka Gallery, The Sage College of Albany
An Armory Show 2013
Opalka Gallery, The Sage College of Albany
A Fine Line 2013
Albany Public Library, Pine Hills Branch, Albany, NY
So To Speak
Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY
More or Less: Art on the edge of excess and austerity 2012
Albany International Airport Gallery, Albany, NY
Inosculation a curated alumni exhibition
Urban Arts Space, Columbus, OH
Plastic!
Salem Art Works, Salem, NY
More or Less
Albany International Airport Gallery, Albany, NY
Photography: New Work
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
The Other Side: Fernando Orellana and Melinda McDaniel
Milavec Hakimi Gallery, New York, NY
Paper Anniversary
View Arts Center, Old Forge, NY
So To Speak
BRIC Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, NY
Double Reverse
TNC Gallery, New York, NY
Back to School 2011
Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, NY
Paper Works
Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council, Lapham Gallery, Glens Falls, NY
Thread, Pixels, Paper: Melinda McDaniel, Katherine Zexter, and Katherine
Kreisher
Carrie Haddad Photographs, Hudson, NY
The Sketchbook Project, Art House Co-op
Traveled to multiple U.S. locations throughout 2011
POLAROIDS: William Wegman, Mark Beard, 2010
Tanya Marcuse, John Dugdale, Jeri Eisenberg, and
Melinda McDaniel
Carrie Haddad Photographs, Hudson, NY
Red Dot Art Fair, Carrie Haddad Photographs
New York, NY
2009 Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region 2009
University Art Museum, University at Albany, The State University of New York
PhotoDimensional
The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
31st Annual Photography Regional
Opalka Gallery, Russell Sage College, Albany, NY
Mutatis Mutandis: Appearance and Identity
The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY
New Evolutions: Ingrid Ludt and Melinda McDaniel
Saratoga County Arts Council, Saratoga Springs, NY
SNAP!
Union College, Mandeville Gallery, Schenectady, NY
2009
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• “On exhibit: ‘So To Speak’ at the Arts Center of the Capital Region,” Times Union, February 6, 2013, Amy Griffin
• “More or Less a satisfying survey of excess and austerity,” Times Union, September 5, 2012, Amy Griffin
• “Beyond the Camera: Influences and Process,” Afterimage, August 2012, Lucy Bowditch
• “’Paper’ products,” Times Union, July 31, 2011, Amy Griffin
• “A photographic cut-up,” Times Union, June 30, 2011, Amy Griffin
• “Polaroid exhibition at Carrie Haddad Photography celebrates art of a former popular medium,” Times
Union, May 13, 2010, Tim Kane
• “Best of 2009,” Metroland, December 31, 2009, Nadine Wasserman
• “Photos reframed,” Times Union, October 1, 2009, Tim Kane
• “Local Vision,” Metroland, April 2, 2009- April 8, 2009, Nadine Wasserman
• “Mutatis Mutandis: Appearance and Identity” Catalogue, January 16- March 22, 2009, Rachel Seligman,
Curator
• “SNAP!” Catalogue, July 10- September 28, 2008, pages 2; 14-16, Rachel Seligman, Curator
• “A Grand Show”, Metroland, May 31-June 6, 2008, Shawn Stone
RESIDENCIES AND AWARDS
• Strategic Opportunities Stipend, New York Foundation for the Arts 2009
• Individual Development Awards Program, University at Albany, State
University of New York
• Strategic Opportunities Stipend, New York Foundation for the Arts 2008
• Vermont Studio Center Residency and Fellowship, Johnson, VT 2007
LECTURES
• Northeast Regional Society for Photographic Education Conference 2012
• The College of Saint Rose, Department of Fine Arts, Foundations
• Schenectady Photographic Society 2011
GALLERY AFFILIATION
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York
