Dawn Mellor's 'A Curse on Your Walls' at Team Gallery Blends Surrealism with Political Fury

Dawn Mellor's exhibition 'A Curse on Your Walls' runs at Team Gallery until August 8, located at 83 Grand St. in New York. The show features two primary series: six large-scale paintings reimagining Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz' in macabre scenarios, and 71 easel portraits titled 'Vile Affections' depicting celebrities with satirical and violent twists. Mellor's work merges sociopolitical critique with personal longing, drawing connections to Surrealism and artists like Philip Guston and Nicole Eisenman. Her paint handling oscillates between subtlety and brutality, as seen in pieces like 'Yellow Bricks Dorothy' (2007-08), where Dorothy is depicted as a slave laborer, and 'Giant Dorothy' (2007-08), which includes explicit imagery and anarchic slogans. The celebrity portraits target figures from Condoleezza Rice to Madonna, often incorporating wounds and distortions, reflecting Mellor's background as an S&M cabaret performer. The exhibition highlights her position within the Young British Artist movement, alongside contemporaries like Cecily Brown, and her ability to blend eroticism with political commentary. A version of this review originally appeared in the New York Sun on June 26, 2008.