Melissa Alley
“I have trained myself to clear my mind to enter into a trance state to allow my paintings to materialise from the subconscious.”
Melissa Alley is a British artist living in London. After the traumatic experience of losing a child to cotdeath Melissa felt a sense of being ‘opened up’ leading to her creation of ‘automatic’ paintings inhabited by all sorts of unexpected presences, people and animals. She joined a Mediums development group and was invited to create drawings about their guests who she had previously never met. These auroagraph drawings flowed out of Melissa intuitively and richly portrayed the physical, emotional and spiritual lives of the subjects, from their past, present and future. As her painting practice developed she began to make her Auto Trance Portraits such as the one in the image which encapsulate an individual’s life. They are inspired by tuning in to old photographs, samples of handwriting or purely by concentrating on a specific person.
“I attended weekly classes held by the visionary artist, Cecil Collins. He and Mark Tobey had created a technique that encouraged the abandonment of any conscious control to allow chance and natural expression. I found the simultaneous use of both hands in his process very useful as it trained both sides of the brain – co-operate, creating a harmonious union of the analytical and intuitive. The way I make my paintings is influenced by that training. Now I seek to play with the interface between figuration and abstraction, coming in and out of focus through rhythm, colour, shape and texture. The work is never fixed, but in a state of flux. If the viewer relaxes their mind, marks and gestures can describe a face, or a profile, animal or creature. The paintings are catalysts that stimulate the subconscious mind to reveal archetypes, and yet, in a different state of mind, different things can appear. The images are not pre-conceived, I get into my rhythm, applying colour and brushstrokes, aiming to express the intuitive and spontaneous.” Melissa Alley
Form more about Melissa visit her website.
Selected Exhibitions:
2025 Tranceducers: Art of Visionaries, Mediums and Automatists at the GPS Gallery, London
Homing, Safehouse 1, Peckham, London (exhibiting with Rosey Prince, Blue Pheonix and Kate Burnett)
2024 How Soon is Now, Baker Howard Contemporary, Shoreditch
2022 Creative Spirits at The College of Psychic Studies, London
2022 Turps Offsite Program Exhibition
2021 Aura 2, The Gallery at Brook Street, London
2021 Aura, Nolia’s Gallery, London
2021 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
2020 Imperfectum, The Cello Factory, London, curated by Vanya Balogh
2019 Minuscule, Venice Biennale, curated by Vanya Balogh
2015 Fusion: An exhibition of paintings and installations at Cinnamon Soho
2018 Soul Sessions with Paul Tecklenberg, St John’s on Bethnal Green
2018 The Apartment 11, A1 Studios, Bow Arts Trust, London
2018 Soul Sessions, St John’s Church, Bethnal Green, (Drawings Performance & Sound Piece)
2018 Protocol, Q Park, Cavendish Square, Level -3
2017 Empire II, Venice Biennale, 2 minute film: https://vimeo.com/216498813
2014 Inner Visions at Mordern Hall Park
2014 Deptford Stories, Anthology J. Stone & Co Foundry, London (Paintings and Performance)
2012 Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy of Arts, London
2011 Emerson Galerie, Berlin, Germany and Screenspace, Melbourne, Australia
2010 My Magic Life, curated by Mikey Georgeson, Sartorial Gallery
2009 London Group Open, Cello Factory, London
2008 Six Artists, Karma Gallery, Calcutta, India
2007 Salon Open, D21 Gallery, Leipzig, Germany
2004 Rotunda Gallery, New York, USA May/June Kunsthaus, Zurich
2003 Three Artists at Eastman Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA.
2001 Multiple Choice with Paul Tecklenberg, Spitz Gallery, London
2000 Constellation, with Paul Tecklenberg, House gallery, Camberwell
2000 Colour and Curve, Benjamin C. Hargreaves at The Air Gallery, London
Image: Trance Portrait of Young Girl with Ringlets, 2024, Acrylic on wood, carte de visite and ink on glass, 36.5 × 45 cms