WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.- The Norton Museum of Art hosts artist Fabiola Menchellis first solo museum show in the United States, certain silence, from December 7, 2024, through March 23, 2025.
Menchellis work engages with photographys materiality, and the works showcased in the exhibition considers a range of conceptual theories, including visual perception, the relationship between viewer and artwork, the language of abstraction, poetry, and more.
Comprised of more than 20 works, including a selection of previously unseen pieces, her atmospheric photographs test the limits of perception as she folds, exposes, and develops works that may appear straightforward but contain complexities brought forth by chance and accident, all created without a camera or negatives.
The exhibitions final month coincides with Menchellis tenure next March as the Nortons Mary Lucille Dauray 2025 Artist-in-Residence, when she will engage with the West Palm Beach community for a slate of public programming.
Fabiola Menchellis unique approach to photography engages a sense of wonder and discovery, and it is an honor to host her debut museum exhibition and award her the Mary Lucille Dauray 2025 Artist in Residence, said Ghislain dHumières, Kenneth C. Griffin Director and CEO of the Norton Museum of Art. When viewing certain silence, audiences should allow themselves to be physically and emotionally transported by Menchellis work; for a few moments, the metaphysical nature of light, color, and sculptural form may wash over the concerns of everyday life.
Through abstraction, Menchellis work engages in conversation with the history of photography and pushes the limits of the medium through her experimental, camera- less creative approach. Menchellis photographs are visually all-consuming, both atmospheric and ethereal, powerful and focused, and her artistic process involves a keen understanding of guiding light, the essential practice of photography. She has spent her career investigating theories on light, color, and perception, including how to master light-sensitive chemistry in the color darkroom, an often-unforgiving place.
Menchelli creates these colorful, abstract, and sculptural photographs without the use of negatives or a camera, both pointing out and acting against the norms of the medium. To do so, she must work in complete blindness in her color darkroom, guided by touch, memory, and sound. She has created a coding system for each transparent color gel, so she knows exactly what she is picking up to insert into the photographic enlarger, which acts as her only light source. Though her process is highly complex, the artist prefers that viewers approach each work with their own reference points to create an experience that is completely singular to them.
"For me, the darkroom is not just a room in my studio, its more like a state of mind, a meditative space where I can stop thinking logically and make images via a negotiation of movements and exposures between the paper and my body, Menchelli said. The process of making this work is laborious; it becomes a physical way of locating meaning that requires a reorientation of my body. All other senses compensate for the lack of vision, creating a sense of deep concentration. It feels like a kind of ritual that requires a calm and steady flow in order to deal with the unexpected."
certain silence was curated by Lauren Richman, William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of Photography at the Norton Museum of Art.
I hope visitors take away a new awareness and recognition of experimental photography that the medium is not simply upheld by its representational and reproducible qualities, but also its capacity for the unexpected and unknown. Light transforms from tool to material in Menchellis work, and beauty is expressed through her embrace of chance and accident. Richman said.
certain silence | Fabiola Menchelli is organized by the Norton Museum of Art.
Fabiola Menchelli holds a Master of Visual Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art (2013). Her most recent exhibitions include Cromosfera: Fabiola Menchelli and Dannielle Tegeder at Arróniz Contemporàneo (CDMX, 2024), we are not what we have seen at Angstroms offsite Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo (CDMX, 2024), Dark Moves: Fabiola Menchelli & Heather Watkins at The Cooley Gallery (Portland, OR 2022), I carry all the names Im given at Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo (CDMX, 2022), Parallax at ProxyCo Gallery (New York, 2021), Under the Blue Sun at Marshall Contemporary (Los Angeles, 2021), among others. She has participated in collective exhibitions in Jinan, Venice, Houston, CDMX, London, Paris, Bogotá, and Dubai, among others.
Menchelli has been invited to participate in various artistic residencies such as the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Casa Wabi, and Casa Nano. She received the Fulbright-García Robles Scholarship (2011-2013), FONCA-CONACYT for studies abroad (2011-2013), MassArt Deans Award (2012-2013), the FONCA Young Creators grant (2014), the Acquisition Award of the XVI Photography Biennial of the Center for Image (2014), and the National System of Art Creators of FONCA (2019-2022). Her work has been featured in books such as Dark Moves (2024), released by the Cooley Gallery, and Desdoble (2022), published by ESPAC México. She has been a visiting artist in both Mexico and U.S. institutions. She is the founder and director of Circulo de Critica de Obra, an alternative art education program.
