By the Light of the Moon

This March, Milk Moon is pleased to present a duo show featuring two of our newest artists, painters Rene Gonzalez and Melissa Lakey. By the Light of the Moon is a beguiling exploration of emotional landscapes, personal narratives, and relationships, examined through the lens of the natural world.

Born in Montreal and currently based in London, Rene Gonzalez began painting in Costa Rica’s graffiti art scene, before moving to the UK to study painting at City & Guilds of London Art School. Gonzalez crafts lushly detailed, dreamlike scenes, where a recurring cast of foxes, deer, and other fauna move quietly through dense, moonlit forests. His work draws on both his personal history as an artist in perpetual migration and an eclectic tapestry of historical mythic traditions from across the globe. In his bewitching works of magical realism, Gonzalez addresses personal narratives and feelings of otherness, while simultaneously utilizing his thoughtfully constructed visual language to connect to the viewer through universally accessible themes and symbols.

Based in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree National park, Melissa Lakey captures the unexpected vibrance of her desert home in whimsical mixed media scenes that exist within the rose-colored liminal spaces between dreams and reality. Born from an intimate, symbiotic relationship with her environment, her artistic practice is both inspired by the natural world around her and a reciprocal homage to the sense of wonder she draws from it. Infused with luminous optimism, Lakey’s paintings are spaces of joy and possibility, where the warm sun or the blue glow of the moon impart the viewer with a tantalizing sense that anything could happen.