Carina Melo’s art begins with a fundamental inversion. While traditional painting seeks to
freeze a moment of light, her work builds a structure where light never feels still. Her
canvases aren’t representations—they’re phenomenological devices: intelligent surfaces,
sculpted with textures and reliefs, designed to reveal the passage of time. Light isn’t what
illuminates the work; it’s the raw material that continuously reshapes it.
At the core of her practice is a conscious rejection of literal imagery. “In an age where
technology can capture landscapes with precision,” the artist says, “I’m not interested in
painting exactly what I see. I want to express how it makes me feel.” That statement is the
key to her process. She doesn’t paint nature, but her sensory impression of it—the tactile
memory of wind, the organic geometry of tides, the silent pulse of the earth. Her
canvases give form to what remains when the image fades and only feeling lingers.
For Melo, texture is her syntax. Using acrylic paste, she transforms the canvas’s flat
surface into a subtle micro-topography, a relief that acts as a map for both light and the
eye. Every groove and elevation is a deliberate decision meant to create a “captivating
play of light and shadow.” The work becomes a living organism, breathing with the space
around it, contracting and expanding its nuances as sunlight moves across the sky. It’s
art in a state of perpetual flow.
Her minimalist aesthetic isn’t about absence—it’s a strategy for amplification. By
reducing her chromatic and formal vocabulary, Melo creates a visual silence that
heightens the senses. Without the distraction of color, the viewer is invited to notice
what’s most subtle: the movement of shadow over texture, the vibration of light, the
breath of space itself.
Ultimately, her work engineers an atmosphere. These pieces aren’t meant to be simply
observed, but inhabited by the gaze—generating a “sense of lightness, peace, and
serenity.” That sense of calm doesn’t come from idyllic representation, but from the rare
chance to witness time inscribed into matter. Carina Melo’s art offers a remedy to the
fleeting nature of contemporary imagery: not a record of a moment, but the experience
of the moment unfolding itself.
Between Textures and Feelings
Carina Melo’s Journey Through
Contemporary Art
Instagram: @carinamelo.art