Melbourne-based Melody Spangaro uses monochromatic mark-making techniques to document experience, memory, and emotional responses to natural environments. Creating large and expressive works, she is “driven by the desire to understand the current ecological crisis” through rendered scenes of vastness and intimacy, creation and destruction, power and helplessness. After winning the Stuart Black Memorial Scholarship for drawing excellence in 2019 and the Carolyn and Hans Varney Award in 2021, Spangaro earnt her Master of Contemporary Art at The University of Melbourne. She was awarded the M16 Drawing Prize in 2020, the FLG Exploration 21 People’s Choice Award in 2021, and was a finalist in 2022 for the M16 Drawing Prize, Boynes Emerging Artist Award, and the Ginninderry Drawing Prize. Addressing contemporary anxieties with sensitivity and technical rigour, Spangaro’s work will be on display in a solo exhibition in Canberra opening in August 2023.
Above: Melody Spangaro, A BURNING SENSE OF URGENCY -36.188:147.776, 2021. Water soluble graphite on polypropylene synthetic paper drymount on Dibond, 136 x 175cm. Courtesy: the artist.