Click to download a copy of my CV.
Melissa is an Australian artist who works on Whadjuk Noongar land in Boorloo/Perth and has lived and worked in Naarm/Melbourne for five years and on Duwamish lands in Seattle, USA for close to seven years.
Her aesthetic sensibility is influenced by her early studies in computer science and her first career and BFA (hons) in interior architecture (Curtin University, 2001). In this career she worked for a private interior design practice before contracting to Lotterywest during their branding changeover, from 2004 – 2006. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Jewellery Production (Curtin University, 2006) and a jewellery and metalsmithing MFA (Monash University, 2009). She has worked full-time as an artist with her studio, firstly in St Kilda, then Seattle and now North Perth, since 2009.
Her practice alternates between meticulously researched socially aware / protest art, and technology / materials-based investigations. The centre of her practice is her deep empathy towards the human body, and the life that each body represents. She often makes with recycled objects that are familiar to, and can act as a proxy for, the human body. The body is a frequent venue for the display and dissemination of her wearable messages.
She has exhibited worldwide, with solo exhibitions in Australia, Japan and the USA. She has works in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the University of Iowa Museum of Art, and Cheongju Collection in South Korea, amongst others, and she has exhibited in the prestigious Schmuck exhibition in Munich.
Her writing appears online at Art Jewelry Forum and Garland, and she is the former chair of the Editorial Advisory Committee of the US-based industry publication Metalsmith. She was an inaugural exhibitor at, and is a current committee member of, the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial. She has presented papers in Australia, Europe and North America, had residencies in Europe and the US and received grants in the USA and Australia.
Her first work of permanent public art, breathe, commissioned for Murdoch Square by Hesperia, was installed in 2024. Her work is currently on display in the main exhibition of Recrafting Tomorrow: The Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025 in South Korea, and in the MAKE Award at Australian Design Centre, as well as Remade-Reloved, also at Australian Design Centre for Sydney Craft Week 2025.
This blog documents my practice as an artist/ jeweller / designer / writer and lapsed interior architect.
All posts are written by me, with quotes as noted. The texts presented in the Conference Papers and Symposia sections were first delivered at the events as indicated in each introduction, and are collected here for reference.
The Juukan Tears and 1.1.2017 pages catalogue single research / art projects and their associated outcomes.
I do most of the photography, so if you plan to reuse, please note Melissa Cameron as the photographer. Some images, including those featured on invitation cards (reprinted with permission), are by others, who retain copyright, as do the other artists whose works feature in posted photos. If your work is featured in an image that you don’t want to see here, please get in touch and it will be removed ASAP.
My website, upgraded in 2024 and updated regularly, holds an exhaustive catalogue of work, divided into my recent Banner and Badge exhibition, newer series and and my archive. I also advocate checking the Highlights page of this site for more descriptive recountings of recently completed projects.
For the new website I owe a huge dept to Bruce Cooper of Mechination. He has tailored the site and its attendant CMS (content management system!) architecture to me and my inventory system. It has changed the game of how I log my works and run my business.
Favorite tool: a tie between AutoCad LT and the 100mm Vallorbe saw frame combined with 6/0 Glardon Vallorbe blades. Or PUK welder, or the drill press… sometimes even the camera….
Have feedback?: blog at melissacameron dot net