Istituto Italiano di cultura - London
Bloom. Tapestries, illustrations and films inspired by crafts and landscapes from Sardinia, where local art is marinated in its history, from the Byzantine Empire to the Spanish House of Aragon.
Carolina Melis is a visual artist whose work has a unique, vibrant beauty, balancing intriguing graphic devices with artistic imagination. Her background in choreography has given her an intuitive understanding of movement in space, translating into art that explores organic development, life-cycles and living relationships, and which revels in possibility.
Bloom is collection of illustrations, animations and textiles inspired by the traditional crafts and landscape of the artist’s native Sardiniaan island where local art is marinated in its history, from the Byzantine Empire to the Spanish House of Aragon.
Carolina Melis (b. Cagliari, 1975) moved to the UK to study choreography at London Contemporary Dance School and Dartington College of Arts. Later she developed an interest in screen-based movement that led to a Masters Degree at Central St Martins where she specialised in animation and illustration.
After graduating in 2004, Carolina won an Animate! commission for the film As The Crow Flies. Projects that followed include music videos for some of the most forward-thinking contemporary music artists, including Vladislav Delay, Four Tet, Metronomy, Oh No Ono and Efterklang. She created a series of shorts for the TV channel Animal Planet, as well as projects for MTV, Sony PSP, Prada and, notably, a series of idents for BBC3. Carolina is also an internationally known illustrator and art director whose work has been commissioned by clients such as Hermes, IKEA, Adidas, Microsoft, LeSportSac, Max Mara, Vogue and Tank.
In 2010 Carolina was commissioned by the Sardinian Institute of Ethnography to make the short film Le Fiamme di Nule. This project led to a series of collaborations with Sardinian artisans, some of which are presented in Bloom.
Opening november 24th
Istituto Italiano di cultura
39 Belgrave Square - London
Mon-Fri 10am-8pm; Sat-Sun 10am-4pm