YOU ARE HERE
VICTORIA AHMADIZADEH MELENDEZ AND CHRISTEN BAKER
Runs / April 4 – April 27, 2025
Reception / Friday, April 4, 6-9 PM
Hours: Sat-Sun from 2-6 PM
Grizzly Grizzly is pleased to present You Are Here, a two-person exhibition by Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez and Christen Baker. In this luminous installation, neon words cluster and connect across the gallery walls, forming a “mind map” linking phrases like “Always,” “Maybe,” “Fear,” and “Desire.” Just as neon and painted signs direct attention in public spaces, these glowing words draw focus to the fluidity of language and emotion, highlighting the role of signage in shaping how we see and interpret the world.
Drawing inspiration from the format and intimacy of an artist’s sketchbook, Ahmadizadeh Melendez and Baker explore the history of text in neon light, tracing its evolution as both craft and communication. Their collaboration emerged during the 2024 “Neon as Soulcraft” artist residency, organized by She Bends, an artist collective dedicated to the diversification and survival of neon. Paired as Mentor and Apprentice, they experimented with font, scale, and color, creating a sampler of neon fabrication techniques that presented both challenges and learning opportunities.
Two prominently placed signs, each reading “you are here,” one made by Ahmadizadeh Melendez and the other by Baker, lead to webs of words that expand across the walls, linking the artists’ reflections and sentiments through illuminated language. Each word takes on a unique form, housed within distinct shapes that evoke different emotional responses. Reflective lines weave between these glowing word clouds, drawing poetic connections through color and form. The artists referenced Manuel Lima’s Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information (2011) as a framework, considering the myriad ways mind maps can visually organize both empirical and emotional data.
Forming words and letters from glass tubes demands impeccable pattern-making and sequencing, a fundamental skill in traditional neon apprenticeships. As Mentor and Apprentice, Ahmadizadeh Melendez guided Baker through the challenges of mastering neon while both artists deepened their technical skills and artistic perspectives. You Are Here is a radiant meditation on mentorship, materiality, and the evolving language of light.
Artist Bios:
Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez (she/her, b. 1988) creates poetic installations that merge glass, neon, imagery, and text, drawing from her Puerto Rican and Persian heritage. She was the inaugural winner of the Adele and Leonard Leight Award from the Speed Art Museum (Louisville, KY) and has held residencies at Blue Mountain Center, MASS MoCA, Pilchuck Glass School, and the Corning Museum of Glass, among others. Her work has been exhibited internationally at the Museum of Craft and Design, Traver Gallery, Tacoma Museum of Glass, BWA Wrocław, and Glasmuseet Ebeltoft. Passionate about social change and arts education, she previously directed the Bead Project at UrbanGlass, supporting femmes from diverse backgrounds in learning glasswork. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Tyler School of Art (Philadelphia, PA), where she earned her BFA, and holds an MFA in Craft/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA).
Christen Baker is a multidisciplinary artist critically examining human-centered views of “normal” as it relates to perception, change, frequency, waste, information, and environments. Baker’s interest in exploring the intersection of technology, new media, and visual language has led her to work in glass, neon, sculpture, photography, and 3D scanning. She earned a BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA in Glass from Tyler School of Art and Architecture in 2023. Baker has completed residencies at Belger Arts and the International Ceramics Studio and was a Fellow at Ox-Bow School of Art. She has exhibited at UrbanGlass and the Museum of Craft and Design. She currently lives in Indianapolis, IN, working as an Art and Public Life Resident with Big Car Collaborative.