Moonlighting

"Just thinking in terms of time and work, being a mom, instructor, and artist, juggling all these jobs. A lot of these new works reference dream states. They also are mostly done at night when I have time to focus. Since having a child I find that night time is best for inspiration, to have quiet time for myself when my daughter is finally sleeping. The paintings are mostly done in several sittings and are created by free associations, with poetic and dreamlike spaces that evolve and change every time I am able to have a moment to paint. One thing leads to the next and I let the paintings and spaces depicted guide me and how figures can interact and be part of these environments. Ideas change and as I paint things come together."

Melanie Rocan
November, 2013


Melanie Rocan is a Franco-Manitoban artist based in Winnipeg. She has a BFA from the University of Manitoba (2003) and an MFA from the University of Concordia in Montreal (2008) during which time she participated in an exchange program at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. As a three-time semifinalist for the RBC Painting Competition, Rocan has exhibited at the Power Plant in Toronto, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto. Rocan has also exhibited in venues in Glasgow, Scotland, in France and the United States. In 2012 – 2013 her work was the subject of a survey show organized byt the Doris McCarthy Gallery, at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. This exhibition toured to the Kenderdine in Saskatoon and The Plug-In ICA in Winnipeg. The bilingual catalogue includes an essay by Josee Drouin-Brisebois, curator of contemporary art at the National Gallery of Canada. She is the recipient of awards and grants from the Canada Council, Manitoba and Winnipeg Arts Council. Moonlighting is Rocan's eighth solo exhibition at Paul Petro Contemporary Art.