Melissa Wang, "Love Spell"
2022
Acrylic on gessoboard
24" x 36" x .5"
Science-fiction’s fascination with space-flight, as well as commercial endeavors to put people in space, can overlook the dystopian realities of space colonization: it’s a plan B for when Earth becomes inhabitable. Love Spell is inspired by the Overview Effect - an experience of viewing planet Earth from space - that instills an awareness of the planet's fragility and a deeper connection to humanity. Love-Spell is part of a series completed at night, while babies are asleep and celestial objects are in bright orbit.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Melissa Wang grounds her work in abstraction, using painting, sculpture, and installation to explore human and nonhuman entanglements. As a former researcher and designer in tech, she is concept and research-driven, looking to ecofeminism and science-fiction for their prescient responses to climate change. Her lived experiences as a Chinese-American woman in a largely Western patriarchal society has led her to focus on symbioses, nonhuman intelligence and other themes that challenge Western anthropocentrism. Referencing NASA images or natural phenomena, Wang builds dense layers of paint or media; in these richly textured landscapes, she uses colors and shapes that leverage the symbolism of the cosmos. Her works operate at the intersection of archaeology and astronomy, striving for a connection between humanity, the earth, and the stars.
ARTIST BIO
Melissa Wang received her B.A. in Literature/Writing from the University of California, San Diego and her M.A. in English from the University of California, Davis. She researched science-fiction as a PhD candidate before segueing to tech. Disillusioned by the industry's response to one of humanity's most pressing crises - climate change - she began a professional art practice, and has since exhibited at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, CA, and the de Young Museum in San Francisco, CA with a solo exhibition at Root Division (Frank-Ratchye space) in SF, CA. Her work can be found in public spaces including Brown University in Providence, RI and Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, CA. She is the recipient of a 2021 Individual Emerging Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. In 2022, she curated her first in-person exhibition, Grow Our Souls, centering Asian women, femme and nonbinary artists at SOMArts Gallery in SF, CA. From 2022-23, she served as a grant panelist for the California Arts Council, reviewing grants for up to $1 million for statewide art initiatives.
2022
Acrylic on gessoboard
24" x 36" x .5"
Science-fiction’s fascination with space-flight, as well as commercial endeavors to put people in space, can overlook the dystopian realities of space colonization: it’s a plan B for when Earth becomes inhabitable. Love Spell is inspired by the Overview Effect - an experience of viewing planet Earth from space - that instills an awareness of the planet's fragility and a deeper connection to humanity. Love-Spell is part of a series completed at night, while babies are asleep and celestial objects are in bright orbit.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Melissa Wang grounds her work in abstraction, using painting, sculpture, and installation to explore human and nonhuman entanglements. As a former researcher and designer in tech, she is concept and research-driven, looking to ecofeminism and science-fiction for their prescient responses to climate change. Her lived experiences as a Chinese-American woman in a largely Western patriarchal society has led her to focus on symbioses, nonhuman intelligence and other themes that challenge Western anthropocentrism. Referencing NASA images or natural phenomena, Wang builds dense layers of paint or media; in these richly textured landscapes, she uses colors and shapes that leverage the symbolism of the cosmos. Her works operate at the intersection of archaeology and astronomy, striving for a connection between humanity, the earth, and the stars.
ARTIST BIO
Melissa Wang received her B.A. in Literature/Writing from the University of California, San Diego and her M.A. in English from the University of California, Davis. She researched science-fiction as a PhD candidate before segueing to tech. Disillusioned by the industry's response to one of humanity's most pressing crises - climate change - she began a professional art practice, and has since exhibited at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, CA, and the de Young Museum in San Francisco, CA with a solo exhibition at Root Division (Frank-Ratchye space) in SF, CA. Her work can be found in public spaces including Brown University in Providence, RI and Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, CA. She is the recipient of a 2021 Individual Emerging Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. In 2022, she curated her first in-person exhibition, Grow Our Souls, centering Asian women, femme and nonbinary artists at SOMArts Gallery in SF, CA. From 2022-23, she served as a grant panelist for the California Arts Council, reviewing grants for up to $1 million for statewide art initiatives.
2022
Acrylic on gessoboard
24" x 36" x .5"
Science-fiction’s fascination with space-flight, as well as commercial endeavors to put people in space, can overlook the dystopian realities of space colonization: it’s a plan B for when Earth becomes inhabitable. Love Spell is inspired by the Overview Effect - an experience of viewing planet Earth from space - that instills an awareness of the planet's fragility and a deeper connection to humanity. Love-Spell is part of a series completed at night, while babies are asleep and celestial objects are in bright orbit.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Melissa Wang grounds her work in abstraction, using painting, sculpture, and installation to explore human and nonhuman entanglements. As a former researcher and designer in tech, she is concept and research-driven, looking to ecofeminism and science-fiction for their prescient responses to climate change. Her lived experiences as a Chinese-American woman in a largely Western patriarchal society has led her to focus on symbioses, nonhuman intelligence and other themes that challenge Western anthropocentrism. Referencing NASA images or natural phenomena, Wang builds dense layers of paint or media; in these richly textured landscapes, she uses colors and shapes that leverage the symbolism of the cosmos. Her works operate at the intersection of archaeology and astronomy, striving for a connection between humanity, the earth, and the stars.
ARTIST BIO
Melissa Wang received her B.A. in Literature/Writing from the University of California, San Diego and her M.A. in English from the University of California, Davis. She researched science-fiction as a PhD candidate before segueing to tech. Disillusioned by the industry's response to one of humanity's most pressing crises - climate change - she began a professional art practice, and has since exhibited at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, CA, and the de Young Museum in San Francisco, CA with a solo exhibition at Root Division (Frank-Ratchye space) in SF, CA. Her work can be found in public spaces including Brown University in Providence, RI and Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, CA. She is the recipient of a 2021 Individual Emerging Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. In 2022, she curated her first in-person exhibition, Grow Our Souls, centering Asian women, femme and nonbinary artists at SOMArts Gallery in SF, CA. From 2022-23, she served as a grant panelist for the California Arts Council, reviewing grants for up to $1 million for statewide art initiatives.