{"id":4748,"date":"2025-11-13T00:16:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T00:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/melanievote.com\/?page_id=4748"},"modified":"2025-11-13T00:58:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T00:58:58","slug":"consulting-with-the-light-eaters-equity-gallery-new-york","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/melanievote.com\/index.php\/consulting-with-the-light-eaters-equity-gallery-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Consulting with the Light Eaters Equity Gallery New York"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Consulting with the Light Eaters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Equity Gallery, NY<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Melanie Vote will be exhibiting new plein air works, studio paintings, and installation elements based on her continued exploration of the natural world, specifically, the midwestern farming plains she grew up in and returned to years later in a Ruskinian effort to memorialize and preserve their beauty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Installation view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fifteen odd years ago a close friend of the artist purchased a sizable expanse of Iowa prairie that had once sited a frontier homestead.\u00a0 Haunting and lush, the land harkened back to Vote\u2019s rural upbringing and rekindled a crush for all things green. \u00a0Repeated visits, morphing into a self-styled artist residency, yielded a body of work depicting overgrown fields littered with ancestral artifacts and pioneer structures overgrown by nature\u2019s relentless reclamation.\u00a0 That carefully observed foray into nature, and an attendant observation of those early settlers subject to a less than equitable relationship to nature (as opposed to present day \u201cindustry farmers\u201d) led to a solo show at Equity Gallery titled \u201cNothing Ever Happened Here\u201d<\/a> in 2020.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Subsequent to Vote\u2019s 2020 exhibition, the prairie site came under the stewardship of the Department of Natural Resources, a federal agency conducting geological research on sustainable farming practices.  The prairie contained a large swath of Loess soil\u2014 a highly fertile silty material deposited by receding glaciers that is ideal for farming and in modern times, cash crop cultivation.  Corn, soybean and wheat all thrive in Loess soil; their cultivation has been monopolized by corporate farming enterprises that maximize profits by suppressing biodiversity with a liberal use of carcinogenic chemical fertilizers and herbicides. For Vote, whose work has long focused on celebrating the natural beauty of nature as an eternal well spring of healing, the agency\u2019s findings re-confirmed her belief in the numinous aspects of nature, the deleterious consequences of exploiting her riches and the urgent need for informed and compassionate stewardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Part of the installation in Vote\u2019s 2020 exhibition at Equity included a somber portrait of a prairie inhabitant whose life was cut short by the harsh realities of pioneer life.  Her descendant takes centerstage in \u201cBioluminous\u201d.  Far from somber, Vote\u2019s contemporary heroine emanates the grace and humble piety of generations lived in partnership with the natural world\u2019s bewildering intelligence, present in the smallest sprout to the grandest tree. By extension, the artworks in “Light Eaters,” the latter borrowed from Zoe Schlanger’s book title, delves into themes of time, ecology, and the ephemeral, and invites viewers to contemplate our interconnectedness with nature and the enduring dialogue between humans and the plant kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bioluminous, <\/b><\/i>2025
Oil on canvas
70 x 112 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Consulting with the Light EatersThis exhibition weaves together five distinct narratives to explore the porous boundary between presence and absence, and the layered simultaneity of time, and being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Across the exhibition, the artists trace intersecting temporalities\u2014life and death, ritual and myth, growth and decay. The title, We Were Never Here<\/em>, suggests a spectral duality – a presence that is already vanishing or not yet fully arrived. Rather than following a linear narrative, the exhibition drifts through cycles and returns, where transformation is constant and nothing remains fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Other<\/b>, 2018
Oil on board
40 x 60 in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Climb,<\/b><\/i> 2023
Oil on paper on wood
25 x 16 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"a\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Apple Tree with Crutch,<\/b><\/i> 2023
Oil on canvas
20 \u00d7 18 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Mother Tree<\/b><\/i>, 2024
Oil paper mounted on wood panel
16 x 12 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"a\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Burr Oak with Blonde Yarrow, <\/b><\/i>2023
Oil on paper mounted on wood panel
11 \u00d7 14 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
The Red Parts<\/i>, 2016
Oil on panel
9 x 12 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"a\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Cottage Window, 2023

Oil on paper mounted on wood panel
16 \u00d7 12 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"a\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Within\u00a0Cottage, 2023

Oil on paper mounted on wood panel
16 \u00d7 12 in\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Cemetree<\/i>, 2022
Oil on paper on panel
16 x 10 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"a\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Flamboyan, <\/b><\/i>, 2023
Oil on paper mounted on wood panel
16 \u00d7 12 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Mother Tree<\/b><\/i>, 2024
Oil paper mounted on wood panel
16 x 12 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Shelter In<\/i>, 2020
Oil paper mounted on wood panel
12 x 12 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
St. Louisa of the Milkweeds<\/i>,2025
Oil on canvas
20 x 16 in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consulting with the Light Eaters Equity Gallery, NY Melanie Vote will be exhibiting new plein air works, studio paintings, and installation elements based on her continued exploration of the natural world, specifically, the midwestern farming plains she grew up in and returned to years later in a Ruskinian effort to memorialize and preserve their beauty.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-no-title","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4748","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melanievote.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melanievote.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melanievote.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melanievote.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melanievote.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4748"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/melanievote.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4771,"href":"https:\/\/melanievote.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4748\/revisions\/4771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melanievote.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}