Using the moon to win the lottery, exploring the Palisades, connecting the dots, color, lucid dreaming, Bagomancy, counterfeit detection, Mt. Fuji, Yugoslavian Dinar, telekinesis, wands, synchronicity, randomness, being your own worst enemy, ESP, rear view mirrors, Foxwoods, Benjamin Franklin, the American Dream, anamorphic images and death may or may not be discussed during the lecture.
Melissa Brown's paintings and animations take influence from fantasy-related paper ephemera: money, lottery tickets, playing cards. During the 2009 Nuit Blanche, she hosted "How To Win The Lottery" in the Toronto financial district. The goal of the performance was to win the lottery with thousands of other people. She designed The Tabloid Deck, which randomly form absurdist (but plausible) Supermarket Tabloid headlines as you play cards. She currently organizes winner-take-all poker games that are played for art. She has had solo exhibitions at Magenta Plains, Bellwether, CANADA, Kansas, Essex Flowers in New York City and internationally at Kenny Schacter, Rove in London and Roberto Paradise in San Juan and group exhibitions at Mass Moca, Musee International des Arts Modestes in France, Loyal, Gavin Browns Enterprise, Klaus von Nichtssagend. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Art Forum, Art in America, Hyper Allergic, Art News, to name a few.
