Palm Beach photographer Nick Mele holds first fine art exhibition
When photographer and Palm Beach resident Nick Mele decided to hold his first fine art exhibition, he didn’t have to think long about where it would be held.
The collection “Please Sign in All Guests” is on display at The Colony, 155 Hammon Ave., through Feb. 1.
“The Colony is such an iconic place,” Mele said, adding that the owners, Sarah and Andrew Wetenhall, have been very supportive of his work through the years. “I thought it matched really well with the content and vibe of my work, and it worked out well because some of the pictures are in the rooms permanently in The Colony,” he said. “So it was a good synergy.”
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Mele’s photographic work has been primarily commercial, with campaigns for companies including Ralph Lauren and Lilly Pulitzer. He’s well-known for sharing glimpses into his home life on his Instagram @a.social.life, with images that feature his wife and two children.
“I have a very distinctive style and brand that people have liked in the past that has gotten me a certain amount of following,” Mele said of his commercial and personal work.
He wanted to bring that style to his fine art, but much of his photography in the past featured people in the community or models, people who would be easily recognizable and might not be welcome on a stranger’s wall. To create work that could be hung on a patron’s wall, the subjects in Mele’s fine art series are turned from the camera, wearing masks or otherwise obscuring their faces, adding an air of anonymity to whimsical scenes.
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“It kind of takes you out of the photography if the first question you have is, ‘Who’s that person?’” Mele said.
The images that have been the most popular, he said, are the ones to which people most relate: A woman smoking in a window. A man passed out on a couch while his wife relaxes nearby. A child dressed as an astronaut stands over his breakfast.
While the locations may have been “fantastical,” Mele said, there is something in each photo that grounds it to reality.
“I shoot a lot of fabulous locations and luxury items, and I think what makes them relatable is the humor and the witticism and the tongue-in-cheek nature,” he said.
Palm Beach’s rich history makes it an ideal place for creating art, Mele said. “I think up until recently, a lot of these same families and houses have been around, have been presented with these fabulous interiors and quirky characters,” he said, adding, “Palm Beach is full of real life characters and stories, and it’s just kind of taking those images and stories and making them a little bit more larger than life.”
Included alongside the images of “Please Sign in All Guests” are photos from Mele’s fine art collection created for The Colony as part of the hotel’s recently completed redesign.
Among the photos for The Colony are simply composed scenes filled with humor: A man struggles to walk his Great Danes along the seawall, while in another shot, a woman rests near a pool with an alligator in arm’s reach.
The alligator photo was the first Mele shot for the series. Knowing the hotel is animal-friendly, Mele wanted to find a way to honor that.
“I always thought it would be great to see what kind of animals you could get in there, that weren’t dogs,” Mele said. He researched, came back with a list and found he could rent an alligator.
“I thought of ideas of what would be fun with an alligator at The Colony,” he said. “I still like the idea of flamingos in the lobby,” he added, laughing. “I haven’t counted that idea out yet.”
After its stay in Palm Beach, Mele plans to travel with "Please Sign in All Guests." The next stop is Dallas, where Mele also hopes to create more images.
"There are a lot of towns with rich history and stories and atmosphere that would be perfect for this," he said, noting possible future visits to Aspen, Colorado, and Newport, Rhode Island. "I'm open to a lot of great locations."
The collections can be viewed in The Colony’s Solarium. They also are available to purchase through Mele’s website, www.nickmelefineart.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Photographer Nick Mele holds his first fine art exhibition at The Colony in Palm Beach
