Melissa Cameron

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Biography

Melissa Cameron is from Perth and holds a BA in Interior Architecture and a Postgraduate Diploma in Jewellery Production from Curtin University. She received her MFA in Jewellery and Metalsmithing from Monash University, and moved from Melbourne to Seattle in 2012, returning to Perth in 2018. She has exhibited extensively, with solo exhibitions in Australia and Japan. Her works appear in public collections including the NGA, the University of Iowa Museum of Art and the Cheongju Collection in South Korea. She has had residencies in the UK, Germany and the US, received a Fellowship from Artist Trust in Seattle and grants from the Australia Council. She has presented papers at conferences and symposia in Australia, Europe and North America. Her writing appears on Art Jewely Forum and she is the former chair of Metalsmith Magazine's Editorial Advisory Committee

Solo Exhibitions

2018
The Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize, Transformation 10: Contemporary Works in Found Materials

At Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. As the winnder of the Founders Prize Melissa has a solo exhibition alongside the juried exhibition

2016
Body Politic

Bilk Gallery, Canberra, Australia

2015
Object Evolution

Bini Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Awards

2018
The Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize

Juried exhibition winner, Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PS, USA

2017
Judges Choice Award

Itami International Craft Exhibition, Itami Museum of Arts and Crafts

Collections

University of Iowa Museum of Art, USA

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Cheongju Collection, Cheongju, South Korea

Galleries

Bilk

Publications

2018
New Brooches

Nicolas Estrada. Pomopress

2018
1st Annual Jewelry and Metals Survey

Society of North American Goldsmiths

2017
Narrative Jewelry: tales from the toolbox

Ed. Mark Fenn. Schiffer Publishing

Residencies

2018
Smitten Forum - jewellers residency

Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, USA

2016
Shared Concerns

Winter Residency at Penland School of Crafts, North Carolina, USA

2014
Kuenstlerwerkstaetten

Erfurt, Germany with other artists in the exhibition Heat Exchange 2

Artist Statement

I create socially aware art. It can be viewed as 'protest' as at its centre is a deep empathy towards the human body, and the lives that each body represents. I make work about the vulnerability of human bodies often from domestic objects familiar to and which act as a proxy for, the human body. Individual human bodies disseminate my mostly wearable works