Currently On View: Sam Meléndez and Nick Schleicher

Houska is excited to present Nick Schleicher BAJA BLAST and Sam Meléndez misuri. The show is open now through July 5th.

Nick Schleicher presents BAJA BLAST, an exhibition of new paintings that trace the vulnerability of healing through uncertainty. Ultra-vibrant shaped canvases merge and conjoin, undulating across walls and dancing through space. Wobbly edges and rhythmic movement reject the clinical austerity of minimalism in favor of an unabashed, imperfect humanness. The dynamic surfaces, layered with paint, embrace the sense of fun arising from a life filled with love. 

The distinctive color palette of BAJA BLAST (teals, limes, pinks, tangerines, jewel-toned purples, etc.) celebrates the months leading up to Schleicher’s wedding and honeymoon in Baja Sur. It is also the continuation of CLOUD WAVE, Schleicher’s first international solo exhibition in Seoul, South Korea, where he emphasized color as a distillation of time. Like an eyedropper, each painting encapsulates a particular tonal range, preserving sacred and ephemeral moments to be revisited.

Schleicher’s practice has evolved, using the painting process as fertile ground for self-discovery. BAJA BLAST champions love as a catalyst for maturation and how our ever-present voids morph with connection. First emerging as subconscious markers of grief, the shaped canvases functioned as physical embodiments of spaces held. Tombstones and wobbly circles formed portals manifest from loss, from which we might find a connection in blankness. BAJA BLAST incorporates new forms; many doubled – even tripled. These new works hold the memory of
what was lost – they have not forgotten their old shapes – but in coming together, they unabashedly celebrate the life that now springs from their vibrant depths. 

Co-written by Nick Scheicher and Marina May Schleicher

Houska Gallery is excited to present misuri, a show of new works by Sam Meléndez!

Sam Meléndez combines his love for all things vintage and bright colors from his home, Puerto Rico, in his work. Evidence of his process is an integral component of his paintings, creating an authentic personal narrative alongside the subject he depicts. For this reason, the grit that charcoal marks leave behind and the notes he makes while sketching the pieces are important to the final compositions. "I love the combination of the raw, black and white of the charcoal and bare canvas contrasted with the super bright colors I work with."

Meléndez lives and works in St. Louis.