Seeing New York with Engadin eyes
July 5th 2003
(Translation of German newspaper article)
(urs dubs) Young Pontresina artist Melinda Hürzeler has been studying since September 2001 in New York. Now she came back home to exhibit a selection of her paintings.
Two things impress about Melinda Hürzeler's new collection "Details of Nature in New York",
which we will be able to observe until the end of July at the "Rondo" in Pontresina.
For one thing the great technical work with Oil and Canvas and second the clarity of the picture statement.
Although partly working with abstract elements, there are no laborious ciphers that Melinda Hürzeler
is trying to force upon any observer of her paintings, rather clear statements hide an incentive for
their own interpretation. Loose leaves next to a manhole, or the moon on a black night sky:
Melinda Hürzeler finds a fascinating mixture between a clear picture statement and the room for projection
of observers. These perceivings get particular significant when we connect them with Hürzelers age, she's
just 21 years old.
Although her artistic maturity is advanced, it did not come over night. While she was at school,
the Pontresina girl was painting enthusiastically, especially portraits. During her apprenticeship
as a draftsman she developed her own painting style in a Neocolor technique, some parts of which remind
us of Andy Warhol. Although still objective, some paintings are really graphics. After conclusion of her
apprentice, Melinda Hürzeler moved to New York to find a suitable art school. It was more accidentally,
she says "it could have been Zurich or Milano or Paris, but after visiting a friend, she knew it would be
New York!"
In September 2001 she moved to the USA and found acceptance at the Art Student's League of New York.
There she studies with well-known artists. Her training will take another 3 years. The costs for schooling
and living in the New Yorker borough of Queens she finances with a scholarship, proceeds from commissions
and sales from exhibitions.
The last two years in New York have been "turbulent", says Melinda Hürzeler. What she means is explained
by her abstract self-portrait, a young tree winding itself around and through iron bars. "The world does
not give you any space if you don't make yourself some", she noted on the painting.
The series "Details of Nature in New York" consists of Oil paintings. Oil colors and Canvas at present are
her favorite mediums, she says. They make it possible to work slowly and make changes and corrections, until
the painting possesses the message she imagined. "She has roots here in the nature of the Engadin. For her
paintings which can be observed in Pontresina, she went to search for nature in New York", said journalist
Agi Fetz from St.Moritz in her introduction at the opening on Thursday. Created are views of the "Big Apple"
that are pleasantly different, with her Engadin eyes Melinda Hürzeler found what she was looking for.
Until July 31st the New York paintings along with some of her early Neocolor works will be exhibited at
the "Rondo" in Pontresina. "They tingle with clarity and authority", perceived Agi Fetz in her speech.
And at the same time they transmit silence and peace and give room for observer's thoughts.