MAIN STREET STATION GALLERY
1500 E. Main St., Richmond, VA
ON VIEW
September 2–30
OPENING NIGHT
Friday, September 4 | 6–9pm
MEET THE ARTISTS
Thursday, September 24 | 6–8pm
AN IMMERSIVE EXHIBITION OF ABSTRACT CONTEMPORARY PAINTING & CERAMICS
Color Becomes explores the transformative power of color through contemporary abstract painting and ceramics.
Featuring a new body of expressive abstract paintings by Melissa Casanova alongside handcrafted ceramic vessels by Virginia Casanova, the exhibition celebrates a creative dialogue between two artists whose work has evolved alongside one another over decades. Although working in different mediums, mother and daughter share a visual language rooted in movement, layered surfaces, vibrant color, and joyful experimentation. Throughout the exhibition, painting and clay exist in conversation-inviting visitors to experience how color becomes memory, connection, and place.
More than a collection of artwork, Color Becomes is an invitation to slow down, look closely, and experience the ways creativity can be shared across generations.
THE STORY BEHIND
THE EXHIBITION
What began as sharing art supplies around the kitchen table gradually became sharing ideas, techniques, and a lifelong love of making. Although we each found our own artistic voice, we've continued to influence one another in unexpected ways.
Color Becomes is our first opportunity to fully explore that creative conversation within one exhibition. Together, our paintings and ceramic vessels blur the boundaries between two mediums while celebrating color as a universal language of joy, memory, and connection.
“Crone Circle, Melissa’s abstracts are for the art collector who feels color & vibes with texture. Alongside her mom Virginia’s ceramics, this is a collection you don’t want to miss!”
—Sylvia, The Crone House
Melissa voted Best Local Artist by Richmond Magazine readers 2025 & 2026!
MEET THE ARTISTS
Melissa Casanova is a Dominican-American contemporary artist based in Richmond, Virginia. Working primarily in oils and mixed media, she creates vibrant abstract realism paintings inspired by memory, heritage, architecture, and the natural world. Her work is known for expressive brushwork, layered surfaces, and luminous color that invite viewers to discover new relationships between abstraction, place, and personal experience.
Melissa has exhibited throughout Virginia and internationally, and her work is held in both private and corporate collections. She’s a Crone House resident artist, and was recently named Richmond Magazine's Best Local Artist for the second consecutive year.
melissacasanova.com | @melissacasanovaart
Virginia Casanova is a ceramic artist whose handcrafted vessels celebrate movement, texture, and expressive mark-making. Created alongside Melissa's paintings, her sculptural forms extend the visual language of Color Becomes beyond the canvas, creating a conversation between painting and clay.
Together, mother and daughter have spent years creating side by side, continually inspiring one another's evolving artistic practice.
ARTWORK BY MELISSA | CRONE COLLECTION
Community Partners
This exhibition is made possible through the generosity and support of our incredible community partners.
A cascade of bold color and layered texture, a study in movement and emotion. Vivid magentas and aqua blues drift into soft neutrals, while drips and marks add a sense of spontaneity—as if the painting is still shifting and alive. Bring it home and it brings instant energy to the room, a vibrant reminder of how color alone can stir the senses and transform a space.
Recently exhibited in featured designer Robin Gahan's (Marble Moon Interiors) family room at the 2026 Richmond Symphony League Designer Show House.
2024
Oil and mixed media on canvas, gallery wrapped
18 x 24 in