wild natural setting

Johno Mellish (b. 1991) constructs his photographic mise-en-scènes by combining history, memory and imagination. Sourcing imagery from both traditional media channels and vernacular photographs, he composes fictional narratives which mirror our post-truth, fragmented, and data-driven society.

As a trained filmmaker and cinematographer, Mellish plays on serialism which shapes and informs his visual language. With a love of storytelling, he subverts the practice, creating unexpected juxtapositions and ideas. His ability to capture his audience – creating characters and locations in transition – give his works a certain mysticism. Represented in collections both locally and abroad, he was selected as a focus artist during AKAA 2019 in Paris, where academic Ashraf Jamal described his work, “Mellish is a visual DJ, a master of the remix. If his images seem novel and ‘unexpected’ it is also because, in his world, everything is up for grabs, everything can be reassigned a ‘new’ or different meaning. This process is not only a matter of shifting perspective, it is also the result of the deterritorialisation (Deleuze and Guattari) and defamiliarisation (Brecht) of the images. In Mellish’s photographs nothing possesses its essence, everything – the images content and reason for being – is, in effect, anti-and-post-essential. ”

In November 2021, THK Gallery presented a Solo exhibition by Johno Mellish, ‘The Light that Found You’, at Paris Photo. This was one of 15 projects selected by curator Shoair Mavlian for Curiosa, the section of the fair dedicated to emerging art.