Melitta Nemeth is a figurative painter living in working in London.
She graduated from the Camberwell College of Arts with an MA in Painting in 2021. Her work, Night Bathers 3, was included in London Grads. Now. 21 at the Saatchi Gallery and mentioned by Waldemar Januszczak in the article ’12 future starts of the art world you should know about’.
Nemeth explores the female gaze in painting. Her work continues a feminist response to an art history dominated by “the male artist’s disempowering idealization of the female body”. (Nochlin, 2006) While reinventing the depiction of woman from a female perspective she investigates the ideas of beauty, power, body-positivity, otherness and displacement. She creates safe spaces in her works, hidden from the patriarchal gaze. Nemeth uses photos from diverse sources as reference, including old photographs, newspaper illustrations and her own photos. She makes expressive paintings, investigating how meaning is formed through the material production of the image.
As a female artist, it is crucial for Nemeth to take ownership of the representation of women. Her work is concerned with changing the perception of the female body by depicting it as a place of joy, memory, experience and personal stories. She explores how women look at women and what the male gaze cannot see.
“My memories of growing up in the conservative, patriarchal world of the Eastern Block feed into my work. I have always seen women as pillars of strength in society.”
Nemeth’s paintings reveal the absurdity, joy, melancholy, lightness and darkness within this unique female experience.
Nochlin, L., 2006. Bathers, bodies, beauty. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, p.5.
