Profile
Melanie Crean is an artist and educator working primarily with video, performance, emerging technologies and social engagement. She frequently references myth and different forms of storytelling to investigate contemporary social issues and reimagine cultural archetypes such as the hero, the unruly woman, the nature of justice, and the story of America.
Crean often works collaboratively, experimenting with different forms of participatory world building and design futuring, celebrating the imagination as a political space, and storytelling as a means to access that space. Originally from Waterbury, CT, she works with collaborators in formerly industrial cities ranging from the Northeast US to the North of England, to intervene in civic systems formed by extractive economies. Crean’s practice investigates how history is recorded and what can be read from evidence left behind in contested sites, that include the historical archive, the built environment, or one’s own body.
She has received commissions from Art in General, NY; Artspace, New Haven; and FACT Liverpool; fellowships from Creative Capital, Franklin Furnace, and A Blade of Grass; residencies from NYC Public Artist in Residence program (PAIR) and KODA; and participated in exhibitions at The New Museum of Art, NY; Southern Exposure, CA; and No Longer Empty, NY.
Degrees Held
MFA, School of Visual Arts, Computer Art
BA, Brown University, Art Semiotics
Recent Publications
A Machine to Unmake You, FACT Liverpool, 2024, downloadable from https://www.melaniecrean.com/work/machine
For Fates, A.I.R, 2019
Performances and Appearances
KODA, Governors Island NYC; Thresholds (solo exhibition), 2024
FACT Liverpool, Liverpool, England; A Machine to Unmake You, 1 of 4 commissions for Resolution, 2024
Munson-Williams-Proctor, Utica NY; No Such Place as America (2 person), 2022
Artspace, NH CT; Revolution on Trial incl. If Justice was a Woman, 2020
New Museum, NYC; Social Justice Residency & Exhibition, Mirror/Echo/Tilt, 2019
AIR Gallery, NYC; fellowship & exhibition, For Fates, (solo exhibition), 2019
Whitney Museum / VECTOR, NYC; Mirror/Echo/Tilt performance, 2018
Research Interests
video, installation, social engagement, myth & cultural archetypes, experimental narrative, worldbuilding, design futuring
Awards And Honors
KODA, residency, 2024
FACT Liverpool, commission for Resolution series, 2019-24
NYC Public Artist in Residence (PAIR), with Dept of Design & Construction, architectural intervention, 2021-22
Denniston Hill, residency, 2021
NYFA Artist Fellowship, 2021
Artspace, New Haven, commission for Revolution on Trial, 2019-20
A Blade of Grass, Fellowship for Socially Engaged Art, 2018-22
Recess’s Assembly, Research Artist Residency, 2017
Creative Capital, Emerging Fields award for Mirror / Echo / Tilt, 2016
Franklin Furnace Fund recipient for Mirror / Echo / Tilt, 2015