Weho, Los Angeles
Mélanie Matranga
Feeling Myself
Karma InternationalKarma International Los Angeles is pleased to present Feeling Myself, a solo exhibition of new work by Paris-based artist Mélanie Matranga. Matranga's drawings, sculptures, and videos combine signs and symbols that address interiority as well as social attitudes and habits, specifically in regards to intimacy and sexuality. Through constructed environments that use silicone sculptures cast from walls, furniture, floors, and other domestic surfaces, Matranga’s installations reference contemporary interiors and their sensual and emotionally-evocative qualities. For Feeling Myself, Matranga collaborates with artists Antoine Trapp, Dora Doury, and Carlotta Bailly Borg on a presentation of erotic photography and sculpture that address themes of sexual practices, taboos, and norms. Matranga’s constructed environments suggest isolation within a collective group, evoking the sensation of loneliness in a crowd. Designed for the individual and still engaging as part of a larger group, Matranga’s furniture sculptures present an ambiguity between belonging and feeling removed, and how this relates to erotic pleasures, both personal and with partners. Mélanie Matranga (b. 1985 in Marseille, France) lives and works in Paris, France, where she graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in 2011. She has exhibited internationally, including recent exhibitions at the Indipendenza Gallery, Rome; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Vava, Milan; Cell Project Space, London; and Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo. Her work has been included in publications such as Artforum, Flash Art, Kaleidoscope, and Mousse Magazine. She was amongst the artists selected for the Prix de la Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard in 2014, and was the inaugural winner of the Frieze Artist Award in 2014. Matranga’s work is currently on view at Tongewölbe T25, Ingolstadt, Germany, through July 16th.