Melissa Wang (she/her/hers) creates deeply layered and colorful works inspired by ecofeminism and science-fiction. Her series, The Word For World is Forest, borrows its title from Ursula K. Le Guin’s science-fiction novella, which critiques the teleology of interstellar imperialism as a killer story. Upon reflection, the series explores life through themes of cosmic interdependence in our era of late-stage capitalism. By scraping through paint to reveal previous encounters, her compositions are full of organic marks that resemble tense, dynamic and thriving landscapes. What practices enable their fragile and continued existence? What dialectic about environmental futurity is imagined?
Melissa Wang has exhibited across the U.S., notably at Torrance Art Museum and the de Young Museum in California, with works collected by Brown University and Facebook. She has published in Columbia Journal, The Brooklyn Review, Oyster River Pages and Touchstone Magazine. In 2021, she received an Emerging Artist Award from the California Arts Council. She currently lives and works on Bay Miwok land.
