Melaina Thompson (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist working in printmaking, papermaking, book arts, photography, drawing, and sculpture. Rooted in feminist literature and personal experience, Thompson considers the relationship between the female body, the natural world, and overlooked spaces. Thompson’s recent project, Planet Stranger, was exhibited in Bibliowicz Family Gallery. She has been awarded the Kip Brady Prize for Excellence in Printmaking and the Edith Adams and Walter King Stone Memorial Prize for promise in Fine Arts from Cornell University, where she earned her BFA.
Thompson lives and works in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. She has a passion for arts education and recently endeavored into her first curatorial project, a community-centered artists’ book exhibition. You are most likely to find her in her studio at Brew House Arts on Pittsburgh’s Southside.
Mission Statement:
I am an interdisciplinary artist working across printmaking, alternative photographic processes, sculpture, and other process-based mediums. I create female avatars and the worlds they inhabit, drawing from mythology, the subconscious, and contemporary critical theory. My work questions the representation of women and the female body through imagined imagery and self-portraiture.
My lifelong interest in narrative, storytelling, drawing, and illustration has shaped the aesthetic of my work. Materially, I am interested in printmaking because of its history in aiding social justice movements, and for its ability to be disseminated easily. I use craft mediums such as papermaking, bookmaking, and other expanded print media to challenge the often gendered denigration of these forms.
I ground my personal experience and family history with Feminist Studies and on-the-ground social movements such as Riot Grrrl. My work creates a place where women can see their full humanity realized. By depicting female sexuality, aggression, rage, and desire alongside vulnerability, softness, and care, my characters evade categorization, stereotyping, and simplification—demanding the viewer to engage with their own perceptions of women, femininity, and the constraints of gender.