TEXTILES
MILK, 2020
Canvas with silkscreen, embroidery, ink, and other textiles
North Dakota Museum of Art collection, Grand Forks ND
Milk won two awards at the 2022 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; one of the six Jury Prices: Commended artist and the People's Choice Award.
Was On view from April 30, 2022 on national tour: (2024): The Outwin 2022, American Portraiture Today, Grand Rapids Art Museum, MI (2024): The Outwin 2022, American Portraiture Today, Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, MA. (2023): The Outwin 2022, American Portraiture Today, Ackland Art Museum, NC. (2023): The Outwin 2022, American Portraiture Today, Orlando Museum of Art, FL. (2022): The Outwin 2022, American Portraiture Today, National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.
(2020): Beasts Like Me: Feminism and Fantasy, Bronx Art Space, The Bronx, N.Y.
“Elsa María Meléndez routinely crosses the boundaries between artistic mediums in large-scale artworks that command space and attention. Combining silkscreen, drawing, and various needlework techniques, Milk portrays the artist charging forward, determined. She carries a limp bull and advances while her breasts drip glistening drops of milk.
Created six months into the COVID-19 lockdown, this artwork encapsulates Meléndez’s reflection on the fight for gender equality in Puerto Rico. As people went into quarantine, gender violence escalated around the world. In Puerto Rico, where femicides increased substantially, feminist organizations took to the streets, demanding that the government declare a state of emergency. They received the scorn of substantial sectors of society, across gender lines. In response, Meléndez created Milk, an icon of indomitability that recognizes the strength of women and their life-sustaining force while acknowledging their willingness to nurse the beast that sustains patriarchy”. - Taína Caragol, Senior curator of painting and sculpture at National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today Exhibition catalogue.
