Melissa Pokorny is fascinated with the thing-ness of things and the improbable relationships they can have to each other. Resin dogs, songbirds, and ersatz rocaille décor gathered from hobby stores, internet collectible sites, and estate sales are arranged with digitally rendered, photo-collaged architectural elements eliciting memories of spaces. The artist has culled, collected, repurposed these found objects and images of remembered spaces putting them into a close conversation to suggest kitschy symbolism and whimsically mythic associations. Using the strategies of still life composition and tableau vivant painting, Pokorny's work explores the arbitrary, the inappropriate, and the accidental while evoking a wry sense of melancholy.

Melissa Pokorny is a sculptor and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her work was last seen in Seattle as a part of the group show Unnatural Presence at Platform Gallery in 2006. Pokorny has been shown at Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, Southern Exposure, New Langton Arts and Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco; Food House in Los Angeles; Midway Contemporary Art in Minneapolis; Gallery 400 and Bodybuilder and Sportsman in Chicago; and Front Room Gallery in Brooklyn. She was the recipient of a llinois Arts Council Grant in 2005. Her work is in the collections of the Oakland Museum of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Orange County Art Museum.

Link to artist's CV