Work that stays.
Melinda Lastyak is an abstract artist living and working in New York City. Born in Hungary, she moved to the United States at fourteen and spent eight years as a designer before leaving full-time design in 2026 to paint and draw full time.
Her large abstract paintings are built in acrylic and thick impasto over weeks or months. Each one starts from color combinations that feel charged before their meaning is clear, and a canvas is reworked until the feeling arrives through the paint itself. Her small drawings run the other way, pen on paper in a single pass, made while her mind goes quiet.
Selected Works
memories I, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 in.
memories II, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36 in.
The Calm Before, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36 in.
I can see it through the window, 2025, acrylic on canvas 18 x 24 in.
Untitled, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36 in.
Creatures creatures creatures, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 in.
Untitled, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 in.
Study on Canvas, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 12 in.
The Story
I paint in acrylic, usually large, usually 24 by 36 inches. I start from color combinations that feel charged before I know what they mean. I mix my own blacks and grays and keep the palette muted, then build the surface in thick impasto, sometimes with baking soda or textured paper worked into the paint. A canvas stays with me for weeks or months. I rework it and sometimes bury a whole earlier direction under a new layer. The feeling in the work arrives through the paint rather than being set in advance. My drawings run the other way. I make them pen on paper in a single pass, letting my hand move while my mind goes quiet. It is in the tension between these two opposites that I find my artistic voice.
