Flip Photograph

Melissa Zexter combines hand-stitched embroidery with both color and black and white photography. She uses an older art form, embroidery, refracted through a modern one, photography, to create structured objects that are embodiments of both fragmentation and focused concentration. The sewn patterns and intricate puzzles are colored textured drawings, which serve as webs and grids over the photographs, providing another dimension to the images. The sewing creates a filtered experience; much the way emotions and personal history alter everyday perception. Melissa Zexter was born in Rhode Island and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a BFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Photography from New York University/International Center of Photography, For many years Zexter has combined the slow and meditative process of hand-sewn embroidery with the technologically more immediate medium of photography. Her portraits and figurative work explore identity and representations of femininity. She has exhibited throughout the United States including shows at Kenise Barnes Fine Art, New York, Hallspace Gallery in Boston, MA, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Creiger Dane Gallery. Her work has been published and reviewed in numerous publications including AfterImage, The New York Times, The Boston Herald, Time Out Chicago, The New Yorker, Art New England, The Village Voice, and New York Magazine