Jul 20, 2025

La Cometa

7 PECADOS: Isabella Mellado

July 2025

La Cometa and Povos are pleased to present 7 Pecados by Isabella Mellado.

Isabella Mellado (b. San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a painter and photographer based in Chicago, IL. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018 and her Masters
in Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023.

Mellado is best known for her magical realist paintings on latinidad, queer identity, tarot and occult spirituality. She works in a wide range of media including painting, photography, costume design,
digital collage and sculpture. Mellado’s journey from Catholic shame to spiritual awakening is the context behind 7 Pecados. This series of seven paintings embodies
and subverts how the global west has defined each “sin”—pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust—since they were first mentioned in Genesis. Each painting defies the guilt and shame that the Catholic Church teaches its followers, empowering its
subjects rather than condemning them for their sins. In this series, Catholic characters and symbolism exist in tension with references to the tarot, witchcraft and Mellado’s lived experience as a queer
Puerto Rican woman.

In the world these characters inhabit, humanity is not perfect. The subjects of these works are flawed, vulnerable, and in turmoil, and they wear this openly. In these works, Mellado conveys that com-
plex emotions like envy and wrath, while poisonous, are natural. She postulates that a capitalistic society may tell us rest is a sin, just as the church condemns sloth, but who does this serve? Who among us has the luxury to truly rest and why? She paints the beauty of queer union and partnership, only to over-simplify said
union by titling it “Lust” just as the Catholic church would.

In 7 Pecados, contemporary life collides with centuries-old moralizing tales that draw a clear line between good and evil. By painting demons, angels, sinners, and saints from a contemporary pers-
pective, Mellado questions the unflinching self-flagellation of the Catholic moralizing tales told in the European art canon.

Galeria La Cometa

About La Cometa

La Cometa is a project-based space designed to facilitate relationships between the viewer, the works of art, and the artists. Galería La Cometa was founded over 35 years ago to contribute to the development of the local art scene. Since then, the gallery has been an exhibition space whose mission focuses on the representation, promotion and dissemination of mainly Latin American artists, becoming one of the most influential artistic platforms in the region. Today, La Cometa has four offices in three countries: Colombia (Bogotá and Medellín), Spain (Madrid) and the USA (Miami). La Cometa is a project-based space designed to facilitate relationships between the viewer, the works of art, and the artists, through various expressions of contemporary art. In addition, the gallery’s program seeks to incorporate Latin American Modern Art references, which provide a fundamental context for contemporary artistic creation. The team at Galería La Cometa is proud to present these important projects so that we may align with our mission and exhibit the most influential Ibero-American Modern and Contemporary Art to the world.
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