FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MELVILLE McLEAN
Recent Photographs: Northeast by Southwest
September 19 – October 29, 2002

Alexandre Gallery is pleased to announce its representation of Melville McLean. In September 2002 the gallery will present its first exhibition of McLean’s large-scale color photographs. For years McLean has made images of the landscapes of Maine and northeastern Canada. Recent Photographs: Northeast by Southwest will be the first show also to include a new body of work from the desert southwest. These 40 x 50 inch prints have the capacity to envelop and transport the viewer as McLean translates his reverence for a site into a breathtaking visual experience with dramatic compositions, intense color saturations and a remarkable precision of focus and clarity.

Melville McLean’s work was featured in a 1999 one-person exhibition at the Farnsworth Art Museum. In 2001, his work was included in exhibitions at the Portland Museum of Art (Maine) and at Stark Gallery in New York.

McLean was born in Perth, Ontario in 1952 and received a BFA, specializing in drawing and sculpture, from York University. After receiving his degree, McLean traveled the world for 18 months, sketching landscapes as diverse as those found in Africa, India, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Gradually, photography replaced drawing as his medium of choice. His academic background in traditional media and art historical precedents informs the painterly composition of McLean’s photographic landscapes.

Maine Portfolio I, a recently published portfolio of small-scale photographs, will be featured in the Alexandre Gallery exhibition along side the large work. The accom-panying fully illustrated catalogue will include a text by Aprile Gallant, curator of prints and photography at Smith College Museum of Art.

For further information or images, please contact the gallery: 212-755-2828.