Baert Gallery is pleased to present Atmosphere, the gallery’s second solo exhibition of works by Melinda Braathen on view from 24 February to 30 March. In her new oil paintings, Braathen commandeers the liquidity of the medium to render atmospheric landscapes that transcend planes of existence. The most elementary of interpretations may describe the paintings in this show as vibrant meditations on nature yet the artist’s exploration is something much more intentional; evincing constantly shifting environments, where climate, material condition, and psychology are indulged over representational forms. In this new series of works, the artist refers to a text by Gilles Deleuze in whichhe references Paul Cézanne’s belief that “the painter must look beyond a landscape to its chaos … to the point where one no longer sees forms or even matter, but only forces, densities, intensities.” It is from this principle that Braathen’s new body of work departs, reaching for an embodiment of the manifold definitions of atmosphere.