RAFAEL MELENDEZ, Wool / Antonello / Butler, 2020

Made in 2020, Rafael Melendez’s Wool / Antonello / Butler brings together drawing, photocopy, found imagery and accumulated studio material in a densely worked mixed-media collage and assemblage on paper, measuring 42 × 29.5 cm. A photocopied reproduction of a Christopher Wool pattern painting forms part of the backdrop, overlaid with Antonello da Messina’s Virgin Annunciate (c. 1476), hand-drawn and painted elements, and the graffitied name “JUDITH BUTLER.” Fragments of cut paper, staples, tape and clumped studio detritus are incorporated directly into the surface, shifting the work between collage, drawing and low-relief assemblage. Art-historical reproduction, contemporary cultural reference and the incidental remains of the studio occupy the same unstable pictorial field.