Exhibitions
Isabella Mellado reimagines the seven deadly sins
Final days of the exhibition 7 Sins by Puerto Rican artist Isabella Mellado (San Juan, 1996) at La Cometa Miami, organized in conjunction with Povos Gallery. A small but powerful tour of seven paintings, each dedicated to one of the seven deadly sins (pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust), reinterpreted through Mellado's lens.
Mellado's art combines elements such as tarot, religious symbols, and Latin American folklore in compositions that emphasize the symbolic and the introspective. Through her visual work, she challenges traditional notions of gender, community identity, queer experiences marked by pain, and the symbolic weight of Catholicism.
Isabella Mellado lives in Chicago, Illinois, and in 7 Sins, she creates a world inhabited by these characters; humanity isn't perfect. The subjects of these works are imperfect, vulnerable, and conflicted, and they openly show it. In these works, Mellado conveys that complex emotions like envy and anger, though poisonous, are natural.
In the temporary exhibition "Seven Sins," which closes on August 5, contemporary life collides with centuries-old moralizing tales that draw a clear line between good and evil. By depicting demons, angels, sinners, and saints from a contemporary perspective, Mellado questions the relentless self-flagellation of Catholic moralizing tales told in the European artistic canon.
In 2024, she was featured in exhibitions such as Te Diré Quién Eres (I'll Tell You Who You Are) (Povos) and in 2023 with Desde el Charco (YoungArts), having previously exhibited in Mexico City, San Juan, the Bronx Museum in New York, and the Ponce Biennial in Puerto Rico. Through themes such as rest, anger, and envy, Mellado's work questions power structures and inequality, raising questions such as: Who does the feeling of guilt serve? Who has the privilege of remaining within a capitalist system?
