Melissa Vandenberg
monographic publication forthcoming
Vandenberg's studio practice explores the political landscape using national identity, folk art, ancestry, immigration and the perception of a homeland as points of departure. She gravitates to everyday materials like matches, fabric, stickers, wood, temporary tattoos and found objects. Born and educated in Detroit, Melissa Vandenberg is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and curator living and working in Richmond, KY where she is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Kentucky University.


Melissa Vandenberg - Veneres triptych
Veneres
triptych
2018
match burns on Arches paper
each ca. 30 by 22.5 in. (ca. 76 by 57 cm each)
Melissa Vandenberg - Veneres (left side element)
Melissa Vandenberg - Veneres (central element)
Melissa Vandenberg - Veneres (right side element)
Melissa Vandenberg _ Doublespeak
Doublespeak
2018
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 22.5 by 30 in. (ca. 57 by 76 cm)
Melissa Vandenberg - Doubletalk
Doubletalk
2018
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 22.5 by 30 in. (ca. 57 by 76 cm)
Melissa Vandenberg - Plica
Plica
2018
sparkler burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
Melissa Vandenberg - Red Vanitas
Red Vanitas
2018
match burns and ink on Arches paper
ca. 22.5 by 30 in. (ca. 57 by 76 cm)
Melissa Vandenberg - Fall Trinity
Fall / Trinity
(Distress - Free Fall - Hole)
2018
match burns on Arches paper
each ca. 22.5 by 30 in. (ca. 57 by 76 cm each)
Melissa Vandenberg - Fall Trinity (left side element)
Fall / Trinity (Distress)
2018
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 22.5 by 30 in. (ca. 57 by 76 cm)
Melissa Vandenberg - Fall Trinity (central element)
Fall / Trinity (Free Fall)
2018
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 22.5 by 30 in. (ca. 57 by 76 cm)
Melissa Vandenberg - Fall Trinity (right side element)
Fall / Trinity (Hole)
2018
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 22.5 by 30 in. (ca. 57 by 76 cm)
Melissa Vandenberg - Golden Wen
Golden Wen
2018
match burns and gold leaf on Arches paper
ca. 22.5 by 30 in. (ca. 57 by 76 cm)
Melissa Vandenberg - Outland
Outland
2017
sparkler burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
Bang Bang
2016
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
Bang Bang II
2017
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
Origin of the World
2016
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 34.5 in. (ca. 75 by 87,6 cm)
private collection, Birmingham, AL
Vagina China
2017
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
Ex * Pat * Riot
2016
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 27.5 by 29.5 in. (ca. 70 by 75 cm)
Worship / Warship
2016
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
Welfare / Warfare
2016
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
permanent collection of the 21c Museum Louisville, KY
Slanted Patriot
2015
sparkler burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
private collection New York, NY
Free•dom
2015
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
Proper Patriot
2015
sparkler burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
permanent collection of the 21c Museum Louisville, KY
Fire Crotch
2015
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 29.5 by 40 in. (ca. 75 by 101.6 cm)
FIRE
2014
match burns on Arches paper
ca. 20.4 by 28 in. (ca. 51,8 by 71,1 cm)
Polycephalic Patriot
2013
US flag, polyester, thread
coiled dimensions (as shown on image) approx 18 by 30 by 28 in., extended dims ca. 10 ft long
private European collection
Waterworks
2013
life vest, chandelier crystals, thread, wood
ca. 52 by 14 by 22 in. (ca. 132,1 by 35,6 by 55,9 cm)
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Untitled (Match Drawing Series)
1998
match burns on paper
ca. 35 by 29 in. (ca. 88,9 by 73,7 cm)

Stella
2002
fabric, twine, polyester
ca. 13 by 18 by 12 in.
private collection, Richmond, KY

Resident
2004
feed sacks, twine, mails, electric cord, wood
ca. 42 by 24 by 42 in.
private collection, Carbondale, IL

Wean
2005
wood, metal
ca. 18 by 42 by 10 in.
private collection, Memphis, TN

Stump performance
Surplus Gallery @ the Glove Factory,
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL
2005

Totem
2007
cardboard, lights, fabric
dims variable

White on White
2008
colored pencil and pencil on paper
ca. 22 by 28 in. (ca. 55,9 by 71,1 cm)

Siamese Flag
2009
watercolor and pencil on paper
ca. 16 by 22 in. (ca. 40,6 by 55,9 cm)

Untitled (Flag Study)
2009
fingerprints w/ ink on folded paper,
incisions on paper
ca. 16 by 20 in. (ca. 40,6 by 50,8 cm)

Untitled Gravestone
2012
linen, polyester
ca. 46 by 19 by 19 in. (ca. 116,8 by 48,2 by 48,2 cm)

Drawing on fifteen years of innovation across a diverse range of media including sculpture, works on paper and performance, Vandenberg challenges viewers, ever so softly, to consider their personal constructions of self, identity, place and nation. As she states on her website, “identity is in the home we create, the goods we possess and in the land we live.”

It is this type of subtle understandings of the ways in which an artist can move within and between media that makes Vandenberg’s long history as a practitioner evident. Rather than be trapped within the confines of a medium for fear of stepping outside it, she is as comfortable within one as she is within another. She also revisits methods, but reinterprets their meanings. Drawing on the matchstick drawing methods of her 1998 Untitled (Match Drawing Series) works, Vandenberg is now producing new pieces which scorch paper, but she has turned towards the figurative, using many of the same icons that appear in her collages and three-dimensional works.