JOSEPH MELE (above) and Santino Williams have collaborated on a new exhibit.
Keri Luiz/Staff

■ Pair combine creative forces for new show

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

The pieces range from six small “surfboards,” each 8 inches tall by 3 inches wide, to a large, loose canvas draped on the wall, bearing the repeated, sometimes overlapping image of a silhouetted seabird.

The new art exhibit at Jordan Real Estate features the unique collaborative efforts of artists Joseph Mele and Santino Williams — and in “Rhetoric,” the artists haven’t held back any of their creative fire.

Door skins, plywood, tin and canvas provide surfaces for media employing everything from homemade inks to nail polish. Sand and modeling paste add extra layers.

“WOMAN ON TEAL,” by Joseph Mele and Santino Williams.

Williams’s graffiti-inspired style and Mele’s use of carving tools and engravers imbue each piece with another dimension, and give the show an all-encompassing feel.

“I don’t think the show follows any one particular narrative, so there’s a lot more that can be taken away from the collection of work,” Williams said.

The artists had worked together on a project in a class given by Williams’s mother, artist Diane Williams, and “the resulting projects were pretty impressive, so we decided to work together on a show,” Williams said.

Each piece took anywhere from a week to several weeks to complete. The artists collaborated on the pieces both individually and together.

For Williams, whose work was on display during Open Studios at the Arsenal last weekend, the new show “reflects a certain dialogue between artists who work in fairly different worlds,” he said.

Mele, who works in sumi ink, rust solution, modeling paste, coarse and fine pumice, acrylic paints and many other materials, described “Rhetoric” as “maybe a little bit of a joke, just as in the rhetoric that goes on in the world. There can be a lot of interpretations to it, and I don’t think it necessarily has to mean anything,” he said.

“It could be many things.”

AN UNTITLED work by Joseph Mele and Santino Williams. Photo by Keri Luiz/Staff

If You Go
“Rhetoric” will be on display at Jordan Real Estate through Jan. 15. An artists’ reception will take place Saturday from 4-8 p.m. Jordan Real Estate is located at 1038 First St.

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