Melanie King

Artist Information

About

Melanie King is a working class artist and curator, originally from Manchester, UK. Melanie is now based in Ramsgate, Kent, UK. Melanie’s work has a specific focus on astronomy, analogue photography and materiality.

She is co-Director of super/colliderLumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. She is currently Artist In Residence at the School of Metallurgy and Materials at The University of Birmingham, from Feb 2021 to June 2022.  She is also Artist In Residence at Spacer, Ramsgate from July 2021 to July 2022, focusing on the environmental impact of climate breakdown specifically in Thanet, UK.

Melanie is a PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art (2015-2022).
She is a graduate of the MA in Art and Science at Central Saint Martins (2013), and the BA Fine Art at Leeds Art University (2011).

She is a lecturer in photography on the BA (Hons) Photography programme at Canterbury Christ Church University.
She is represented by the Land Art Agency.

Melanie’s solo exhibitions include Photofusion, London, UK (2022), The Hive, Birmingham (2022) Photo Co Op Folkestone, UK (2021), Big Day Film Collective, Philadelphia, USA (2021), Leeds Art University, UK (2017, 2020), Bloomsbury Festival, London, UK (2019), the Blyth Gallery, Imperial College London, UK (2018). Melanie has exhibited in a wide range of international galleries, such as the Hasselblad Foundation, Sweden, BOZAR Brussels, Unseen Amsterdam, the Williamson Gallery in Los Angeles and CAS Gallery in Japan. Melanie has attended residencies organised by Lay of the Land Ireland, Joya Arte and Ecologica, Spain, Bow Arts, Grizedale Forest, BioArtSociety, Finland and SIM Reykjavik, Iceland.

Melanie has been commissioned by ITV Creates, Mural Stories, The European Commission, Museum of Freemasonry, Bow Arts, Green Man Festival, Vivid Projects, Bompas and Parr X Citizen M Hotel, Mayes Creative, Design Miami x COS Stores, Chelsea Flower Fringe and the Wellcome Trust.

Melanie has been awarded funding by Arts Council England (2020, 2021), Royal Academy of Engineering (2021), South East Creatives (2020), Rebecca Vassie Memorial Trust (2019, 2021).

Melanie is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality.  The purpose of her work is to demonstrate the intimate connection between celestial objects (sun, moon, stars), photographic material and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching a number of sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice.

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