Marius Melissas (Antwerp, Belgium - 1999°) is a visual artist whose first rule of creation is that art, in the context of our time, must be made regeneratively. Seeing in what direction the world is evolving and how objects, whatever their function or type, come into and are discarded from our lives, Melissas believes that artists should consider the environmental impact of their work. New art, for him, can only be relevant if it seeks to innovate and adapt its material techniques to the environmental challenges we are facing.
 

The base layer of Marius Melissas' work has been laid while he was studying at the Elisava Design School in Barcelona. There he pursued a Master's degree in Design through New Materials, an experiment-based research course the aim of which was to conceive materials to find alternative ways of making objects. As culmination of his year-long studies and trial-and-error experiments, his thesis brought forth a modern adaptation of the ancient beeswax technique and the creation of a self-designed paint based on micro-algae. After obtaining his degree and eager to put his practice to artistic use, Melissas started painting extensively with these two techniques and this process ultimately led to his first solo exhibition in September '23 (Bio Pigments Atelier). Since Elisava and this exhibition, while he has now departed from the two techniques he there developed in search of new ones, the young artist felt that his path was defined: adapting known techniques, seeking new ones, fusing materials in experimental ways, and incessantly exhausting their possibilities until their full creative potential has been, for him, reached, and never to abandon the sine qua non of sustainability. Using natural and biodegradable ingredients as much as possible, he upcycles his materials where impossible, for example by picking up discarded production items from companies.

Prior to this period, Marius Melissas's road to his now-found vocation was somewhat more winding. Since early childhood he has had an aptitude and love for imagination which for him primarily manifests visually. It's his default way of looking at the world and at himself. In adolescence, gradually understanding that his vivid inner images, which in childhood had been at times difficult to separate from reality, needed an outlet, he slowly realized that the visual arts were his foremost aspiration. As he came of age, however, he became deeply concerned about the declining state of nature and the human-induced uprooting of the natural patterns which regulate the Earth. Climate Change, as we all know, is a tremendous challenge and, for him, is a ubiquitous, rapidly expanding problem that sticks to everything we do. Gradually  Melissas thus turned to the belief that, in order to make real impact, he must forego his individual desires to pursue a science-based approach to climate change. This led him to study 'Earth system sciences' in Amsterdam, but after a difficult year he realized that he was not predisposed to scientific research,  that painting was his true voice, and understood that art can be made regeneratively and in harmony with nature. Too inexperienced to start out on his own, Melissas made the decision to study at the University of Antwerp, opting for a BA in Interior Architecture, where he was able to gain a lot of knowledge about materials, architecture and the more technical sides of designing spaces and objects. After these three years he started the MA at Elisava as already explained.

The art which Marius Melissas makes can be classified as abstract expressionism with figurative elements appearing only rarely and cursorily. Nature, not limited to landscapes or plants but in its widest sense as "that which automatically becomes", is the guiding force of all his work. His artworks, he insists, are not meant as vessels to convey a message or a concept, but are to be seen, experienced, felt. "I am nothing more or less than the channel through which an image comes," he asserts. Abstraction is for him the rawest possible form of expression, unmingled with human or societal notions which, he believes, too often curtail our experience of the universe, in a way box us into cut-up interpretations of preconceived meaning. Melissas has always felt that an underlying, invisible force is the source of all creation – it is his vision of this energy he seeks to manifest in art – which can only have meaning within your own self; thus he hopes the spectators of his art seek that meaning – intuitively – within themselves. His paintings are affirmations of his faith that art, as a universal language, can connect us to this energy we, in some place of our awareness, all feel. If this is, so to speak, the spirit of his work, the physical materials he uses are its body: the two are on equal footing and inspire each other. He believes that if the avant-garde artist, if today he may at all exist, must create in connection with matter and spirit, consider his environmental impact, aware that one day his product shall, as do all things, decay. This is the message he hopes to leave to contemporary art.

 "If people would just look at the paintings, I don't think they would have any trouble enjoying them. It's like looking at a bed of flowers, you don't tear your hair out over what it means."

Jackson Pollock

written by Luiz Van den Heuvel