DO NOT PASS GO

 
(Go to "Virtual Gallery" for more images)

Emerging artist Melanie MacDonald is developing a devoted following as a gifted practitioner of high realism. Last year, she was recognized by the Magenta Foundation as a young painter to watch, and her work was  included in  "Carte Blanche II".  Of the paintings (acrylic on canvas) created for this exhibition, she says:

"My latest work is a continuation of my series of board game vignettes. Monopoly was the starting point for this series--a suggestion from a friend--and I expanded it to include Trouble, slot hockey, Chinese checkers, and some other more obscure games. With these recent paintings I’ve returned to Monopoly but I’ve created chaotic scenes of the board in disarray–the game suspended in a state of disorder before it begins or having come to an abrupt, messy ending.
These paintings are partly inspired by “Soprano Home Movies”, episode 78 of the television drama’s final season. In it, Tony and  his wife Carmela spend a weekend at his sister Janice and brother-in-law Bobby Bacala’s cottage. During a game of Monopoly an argument ensues over the rules and a fight erupts between Bobby and Tony. The game board is upset in the brawl and Tony loses the fight, ending up on the floor with Monopoly game pieces stuck to his face.
Even though the structure of Monopoly depicted in these paintings has collapsed, the board, the pewter tokens, the plastic houses, chance cards, and Monopoly dollars all continue signifying as vestiges of order, economics, and fair play."

"DO NOT PASS GO"  is MacDonald's second solo exhibition with A.K. Collings Fine Art. and her first with A.K. Collings in Toronto.

"DO NOT PASS GO"
New Paintings by
MELANIE MACDONALD
1142 Queen St. West, Toronto
One Week Only
December 16 to December 22, 2009.
Daily Hours: noon to 6
Vernissage: Dec. 17: 7 to 9 p.m.