Galeria Melissa NYC reopens in an expanded Broadway space architecturally developed by Muti Randolph, designed to celebrate and connect the city’s young art scene. The iconic SoHo location at 500 Broadway is a concept store that will function to align Melissa more closely with NYC’s emerging artists, supporting young, local talent and providing a conceptual meeting place. Melissa’s latest creative vision is realized with “The Future of Her,” an immersive, experiential gallery curated by Kelsey & Rémy Bennett, featuring Signe Pirece and Sam Cannon. Inspired by themes of women’s empowerment, cyber-feminism, gender, and sustainability, these two women will transform the new gallery/store space with their own visions of the feminine future.
The new Galeria Melissa NYC will be a canvas for artists and tastemakers of our time to showcase their work. With exhibits rotating four times a year, this gallery will serve as a place for modern installation art to thrive, as imagined and designed by Muti Randolph. Randolph comments “The concept is an inspiration from the first Galeria Melissa in Saõ Paulo, a space designed to change, to interact with others, to welcome installations and its artists. In the Saõ Paulo and London stores, it was important for us to embrace the actual space and the city itself within the gallery— to serve to support art—the same is true in the new NYC Gallery. The most impactful point is at the entrance with the screens depicting an “urban scene” emulating the streets of New York City.”
The re-envisioned Galeria space was born from a futuristic eye, exceptionally innovated with the latest technology to create a multi-sensory experience that surpasses the typical shopping experience. When designing the new Galeria space, Randolph took Melissa’s creative vision and applied it to the essence of New York and the SoHo space continuing, “We kept the idea of respecting the local environment. What we always try to do in all Melissa stores is to incorporate interactive facades that people gravitate toward in a very organic way. In New York, we have a very contemporary space contrasted by a classic architectural building iconic to the neighborhood.”
Randolph adds, “There are 3 main rooms and a side smaller room. The entry is a huge LED installation with mirrors to attract people from the street in a kaleidoscope effect. The main room for exhibition and sales of the shoes is the heart of our structure. This closes into a third main room, with a lounge featuring a green wall bolstered with organic shapes.”
This installation is being curated by sisters, Kelsey and Rémy Bennett. They have joined forces with Muti Randolph to curate a cultural moment featuring two important immerging artists. The sisters recently poured their efforts into an artistic series called Under Her Skin, a documentary focusing on female artists and their processes, which added to the value of this expert curation.
Contemporary artist, Signe Pierce, is known for her boundary-pushing work creating accessible, intersectional, feminist art which rebukes the traditional “empowering feminist” advertising - and the nature of selling to a woman’s sense of self-worth in her own neon world. Pierce will occupy the immersive room as she combines visual, interactive and performance elements that will radiate from this ultra non-traditional, experiential gallery-turned-store space.
Contemporary artist, Sam Cannon, uses film—particularly GIFs—to explore themes of the human body, predominantly the female form. Her work questions the way today’s society observes images of itself in the digital age, thereby redefining the modern era of fine arts fusion with digital media. Sam’s work will live in the entrance and windows within the geometric construct of the Galeria’s pyramidal and polygonal LED presentation. Both artists will come together in a third space, “The Green Room”. This room will combine both artists’ vision in the context of organic futurism to fully immerse audiences in The Future of Her.
The iconic SoHo building which houses the new Galeria Melissa has been totally reimagined and transformed, taking down all of the internal walls to split it up again into a truly visionary artistic experience. The Future of Her installation will inhabit the newly opened Galeria Melissa NYC at 500 Broadway (between Spring and Broome Streets) until September. Melissa.com
If you're looking for inspired design this season, look no further than Ana Locking's “Preachers and Believers” collection.