Melissa Misla’s colourful depictions of domestic spaces pay homage to Nuyorican culture and aesthetics. In her most recent series of mixed-media paintings titled ‘What a Part of the Apartment Meant’ (currently on show at Praxis gallery in New York until 12 November), Misla tenderly recreates rooms from her childhood home, drawing on memories and photographs of what it was like just before she left it. ‘I use paint, design, collaged material, tile, and found objects to address the collective narrative of transitioning into adulthood,’ she says of the work in an accompanying artist statement. ‘The focus on each separate room, the mosaic tile, the items behind open doors, and the stacked pieces recall such themes of the varied parts of a whole Nuyorican culture and the duality of the Latinx identity.’
