Approved: 26.11.2008

Anne-Mie Melis

Artist, Gallery educator, Researcher

Approved: 26.11.2008
 
 

News

     

    Artist Statement

     

    Anne-Mie Melis work explores organisms and their role in an increasingly technology-infiltrated world. Her work explores science, art, natural creation and human interference. She combines drawing, sculpture, photography and moving images in conceptual installations that ignite our senses and question the interaction between our current environment and how we as humans relate to it. She uses a variety of media; large-scale architectural botanical drawings, assembled objects, plant parts or pruned shrubs, dried plant specimens, stop motion animations, film and photographs. Her large-scale drawings are embedded in the tradition of botany, but a contemporary visual language is used. Some of her photographs refer to plant remnants of a future nature, visualizing a new world with man-tailored organisms. Playful, but also disturbing, her recreated artificial creatures show new qualities and actions different from natural occurring organisms. The animations are the results of a visual research into movement, growth development and evolutionary changes of plants reacting to our future environment. Her latest work increasingly incorporates interactive elements. She invites the public to share her naïve attempts to establish change to our behavior, thus exploring art as a possible tool for its potential to instigate social and environmental change. Running outreach projects for people of different ages and backgrounds is an integrated part of Melis practice.

    CV & Education

    Qualifications and training

     

    1985 - 1988 - National Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium

    1981 -1985 - HKO Painting, Karel de Grote-Hogeschool Antwerpen, Belgium

    1981 - BA Arts Education, Heilig Graf Institute, Turnhout, Belgium

     

    Residencies and awards

     

    2014 - Research and Development Award supported by Arts Council Wales, Artist in Residence  at PDR, International Centre for Product Design and Research, Cardiff Metropolitan University

    2013 - Research Residency Artist, Duke’s Wood Project, Ordinary Culture, Nottingham

    2012 - Hybrid, Peter Hulsmans & Anne-Mie Melis, Artist in Residence in Lokaal 01, Antwerp, Belgium

    2010 - 2011  - Leverhulme Trust Artist in Residency Award, Cardiff School of Bioscience, University of Cardiff

    2010 - Arts Council England selected Escalator Artist

    2009 - Individual Grants for the Arts Award, Arts Council England, Eastern Region

    2009 - Artist in Residence, Addenbrooks Hospital Cambridge, outreach project in collaboration with Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination

     

     

    Exhibitions

     

    2015 - flora, Oriel Davies Gallery and touring, Newtown, Powys

    2014 - Underground, Cefn Coed Colliery Museum, Crynant near Neath, South Wales Valleys

    2013 - Dukes Wood Project, Ordinary Culture, Dukes Wood Reserve, Eakring, Nottingham

    2013 - Colony 13 Cardigan, Bridge Warehouse, Teifi Wharf, Cardigan

    2012 - Feeling the Pressure, Rhyl Library, Museum & Arts Centre, Rhyl, North Wales

    2012 - Intersections, Science in Contemporary Art, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    2012 - Rhôd 2012, An Urban/Rural Dialogue, Melin Glonc, Drefelin, West Wales

    2011 - Invisible Dust, Cambridge Science Festival, Jesus Green Lido, Cambridge

    2011 - Jerwood Encounters: TERRA, Jerwood Visual Arts, London, and touring to Grizedale Forest, Hawkshead, Cumbria

    2011 - Are your Petunias actually transgenic?, Test Bed, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Powys

    2011 - The Late Shift, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, The Forum, Norwich

    2010 - Miniscule, Oblong Gallery, London

    2010 - Suffolk Showcase 2010, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Suffolk

    2010 - The Late Shift, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich

    2009 - Animated, Wysing Arts Contemporaries, Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn, Cambridgeshire

    2009 - The New Botanists, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff

    2008 - Kettle's Yard Open 2008, Kettle's Yard Gallery, Cambridge

    2006 - Watch My Garden Grow, solo exhibition, The Meunier House, Caldecote, Cambridge

    1999 - Galerij DeGriffioen, Sint-Gillis, Belgium

    1999 - CCRix, ‘Marieke Pauwels / Anne-Mie Melis’, Deurne-Antwerp, Belgium

    1997 - Stadsfeestzaal, Antwerp, Belgium 

    1996 - Cultureel Centrum Berchem, Antwerp, Belgium

    1996 - Closed Circuit, solo exhibition, Bernarduscentrum, Antwerp, Belgium  

    1991 - Stadsfeestzaal, Antwerp, Belgium

    1989 - Iritis, Flux introduces Young Belgian Artists, De Beweeging, Antwerp, Belgium

    1989 - Barbaro89, SpazioUno, Firenze, Italy 

    1989 - Kapelgalerie, solo exhibition, Sint Maria, Antwerp, Belgium 

    1988 - Akademiegalerij, solo exhibition, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium