A solo exhibition titled "Watermark" by American multidisciplinary artist Melissa McGill will be held at the Mazzoleni Gallery in Milan, Italy, from September 16 to October 31.
《Watermark》 is an exhibition showcasing the artistic world of McGill, who has long focused on the relationship between water, the natural environment, and human communities. The artist has explored the connections between place, nature, and community across various media, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, sound, light, video, installation, and performance. In particular, water has served as a core subject running through McGill's work and as a medium revealing the connection between humans and nature.
The characteristics of this work are also evident in the exhibition poster. The canvas, where turquoise, blue, pink, red, and purple blend and spread into one another, evokes the flow of water or traces of color spreading across the surface. By emphasizing the penetration and overlapping between colors rather than clear boundaries, it creates a sensation closer to the constantly changing movements of nature than to a static landscape.
Since 2021, McGill has been actively developing paintings that directly address water and waves. According to Majoleni, he has been painterly exploring the language and movement of water using materials derived from nature, such as organic indigo, chlorophyllin extracted from mulberry leaves, and homemade soy milk-based binders. This can be interpreted as an attempt to connect the materials and production methods that constitute the work with the cycles of nature, rather than merely reproducing water.
In McGill's work, water is less a part of the landscape and more an entity that connects memory, time, place, and community. One of his representative projects, Red Regatta, is a large-scale public art project held in Venice's lagoons and canals in 2019, featuring traditional sailing boats adorned with red sails. Through this project, which involved local maritime traditions and community participation, the artist created a scene where the city of Venice meets water, history meets the present.
His interest in water continued thereafter. He carried out 'Lifeline,' a long-term project collecting stories of water and humans centered on the Po River in Italy, and in 2024, he held a solo exhibition titled Eridanus: The River Constellation at the Magoleni Turin, showcasing works that connected rivers and constellations, as well as the earth and the universe. In 2026, he conducted the Marea project in Venice, which was supported by UNESCO and the City of Venice.
This Milan exhibition provides an opportunity to explore how McGill's enduring 'narrative of water' expands in a new space. The title 'Watermark' refers to the traces left by water, while simultaneously evoking the marks that memory, time, and environmental changes leave on places and people.
Melissa McGill was born in Rhode Island, USA in 1969 and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Since 1991, she has held solo exhibitions and public art projects primarily in the United States and Europe. Her work has been presented at various institutions and spaces, including collaborations with Mazzoleni, the Italian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, White Cube in London, and Palazzo Capello in Venice.
Currently, David Totah is introducing the artist in the United States, while Mazzoleni is doing so in Europe and Asia.
Mazzoleni has spaces in London, Turin, and Milan, and this exhibition, Watermark, is being held at Via Senato 20 in Milan. The exhibition runs from September 16 to October 31, 2026.
Exhibition Overview
Exhibition Title: Melissa McGill. Watermark
Artist: Melissa ( Melissa McGill )
Dates: September 16, 2026 – October 31, 2026
Venue: Mazzoleni Milan ( Mazzoleni Art )
Address: Via Senato 20, Milan, Italy
Organizer: Mazzoleni
Reporter Lim Man-taik dream-kaz@daum.net
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