Interview with
The Fold Magazine

FEB 2024

Tight Connections

“What do I actually like and what do I actually respond to?” This is what we're talking about – cultivating what you actually like, not getting in front of a Rembrandt and saying, “Well, that's good” because the greater culture tells you it's good. Who cares if it's good? What's it doing to you?" [Read on…]

---

The Stranger

FEB 2024

(VISUAL ART) In this joint show Merry Go Round of Pleasure & Understanding, two artists, Melissa Messer and Ian Kurtis Crist, share vastly different approaches to capturing the human form. Messer's paintings of people—some solo, some warmly wrapped up in one another—will invite your eye to linger on the long brush strokes and lulling colors that shape their bodies. [Read on…]

---

Press Release

NOV 2023

MERRY GO ROUND OF PLEASURE AND UNDERSTANDING
Painters Melissa Messer & Ian Kurtis Crist Take Koplin Del Rio Gallery for a Spin

February 3, 2024 will mark a first for Georgetown’s Koplin Del Rio as the gallery hands over its keys to local painters Melissa Messer and Ian Kurtis Crist to host their duo show Merry Go Round of Pleasure and Understanding. The month-long exhibition of over twenty medium- to large-scale oil and acrylicpaintings features a lively calendar of events from parties to figure drawing to a film night. [Read on…]