Melissa Staiger is an abstract painter born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1978, now based in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from Pratt Institute, where she currently teaches in the Foundation Department. Working in acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas and paper, she creates large-scale paintings and installations that explore color, spatial rhythm, and the emotional resonance of light, in series including Organic Form, Rooted, and Waves. Staiger has attended residencies including the Robert Rauschenberg Artist Residency in Captiva, Florida, and the Wassaic Project, is a member of American Abstract Artists, and has exhibited at Trestle Gallery and Storefront Bushwick in Brooklyn.

I create large-scale paintings, installations, and works on paper that investigate color, spatial rhythm, and the emotional resonance of light. My process often begins with a physical space—as it did with _Prisma_, where the architecture of Hebel_121 became both a container and collaborator. I started by analyzing the floor plan to understand the scale and how natural light might radiate through the windows and into the street. Color is my driving force. I'm captivated by its ability to shift perception, anchor memory, and create a sense of presence. My materials—acrylic gouache, cotton rag paper, painted canvas, and silkscreen inks—serve as conduits for this exploration. I don't try to suggest light or mood; I build it, saturate it, and let it spill into the viewer's space. At the heart of _Prisma_ is a central textile installation: painted canvas rolls, shaped with cardboard stencils and hung with grommets, cascading in wave-like arcs from wall to floor. The edges are hand-cut in curves to heighten the sense of movement. These forms evolved from my _Rooted Series_, where bands of color met at a central point. This time, I wanted a work that could travel lightly—but unfold boldly, radiating color like a signal through the gallery window. The acrylic gouache works on paper push the wave into new territory—fluid, organic, and psychedelic. Saturated colors echo bodily curves and plant life, while metallic paint catches light like a shifting mirror. Alongside the installation, my sketchbook is on view. It reveals the process behind the project—filled with Polaroids, tape experiments, color studies, and intuitive notes. This 'thinking space' is part of the exhibition itself, offering visitors a direct connection to the playfulness of the creative process. Finally, _Prisma_ debuts a limited edition of silkscreen prints in muted teal, earthy red, and fluorescent pink—colors chosen for how they change with light and temperature. Repeated motifs and lyrical lines echo earlier works, while hinting at new directions still to come.