Melissa Melero-Moose

Last updated
Melissa Melero-Moose
Born1974
San Francisco, California
Nationality Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of the Fallon Reservation and Colony, American
Alma materBFA Institute of American Indian Arts, BS Portland State University
Known formixed-media art, co-founder of Great Basin Native Artists
AwardsJoan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant
2021
Website melissamelero.com

Melissa Melero-Moose is a Northern Paiute/Modoc mixed-media artist and co-founder of Great Basin Native Artists, a collective based in Nevada. [1] [2] She is enrolled in the Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of the Fallon Reservation and Colony. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Melissa Melero-Moose was born in San Francisco, California, [4] in 1974.

Art career

Melero-Moose developed a style of abstract, mixed-media paintings that reference the landscape and culture of her Northern Paiute people. She painted with acrylic washes with layers rice paper and natural objects, such as willow, tule, cattails, and pine nuts. [5] Great Basin landscape, petroglyphs, and basketry inspired her work. [6]

She specializes in visual mixed-media art and has had her work displayed through the Nevada Arts Council. [7]

She has frequently exhibited at the Santa Fe Indian Market and Heard Museum Guild Fair & Market in Phoenix, Arizona. [8]

Great Basin advocacy

To address the invisibility of Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin in the Native American art world, Melero-Moose co-founded the Great Basin Native Artists (GBNA) collective in 2014. [1] She has curated numerous group exhibitions of Great Basin artists, including Great Basin Native Artists (2016) at the Carson City Community Center. [3] The Great Basin Native Arts has partnered with Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum to maintain a changing art gallery featuring regional Indigenous artists. [1]

"Indian people, even though so much of the population was wiped out, we never stopped creating," said Melero-Moose. [1]

Beginning in 2018, the Nevada Museum of Art gave Melero-Moose a fellowship to research and create a directory and archive of Great Basin Native artists. [9]

Melero-Moose serves on the board of the Nevada Arts Council. [1]

Selected exhibitions

Awards and honors

Besides winning several awards at Santa Fe Indian Market, Melero-Moose was selected by SWAIA as its Santa Fe Indian Market Discovery Fellow in 2016. [8]

In 2015, the School for Advanced Research chose Melero-Moose as its Ronald and Susan Dubin fellow. [5]

The Nevada Museum of Art in Reno named her the inaugural Peter E. Pool Research Fellow in 2018. [13]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Orozco Rodriguez, Jazmin (1 August 2021). "Indy Q&A: Paiute painter Melissa Melero-Moose on creating space for Indigenous art". The Nevada Independent. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  2. ↑ "In clear view - Feature Story - Local Stories - October 3, 2019". Reno News & Review. 2 October 2019. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  3. 1 2 "Great Basin Native Artists". Capital City Arts Initiative. 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  4. ↑ Herr, Chelsea (September 2017). "Melissa Melero-Moose: Guided by the Land". Santa Fean: 164. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  5. 1 2 "Melissa Melero-Moose". Native American Artist Fellows / 2015. School for Advanced Research. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Melissa Melero". Nevada's Indian Territory. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  7. ↑ "Paiute artist's work displayed at Nevada Legislature". Carson Now. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Melissa Melero-Moose". Native American Artists Resource Collection Online. Heard Museum Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  9. ↑ Horn, Amanda (23 July 2019). "Great Basin Native Artists and Nevada Museum of Art collaborate 0". First American Art Magazine. p. 23 July 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  10. ↑ "Connective Tissue: New Approaches to Fiber in Contemporary Native Art". Happenings. Institute of American Indian Arts. 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  11. ↑ "Previous Exhibitions". CN Gorman Museum. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  12. ↑ "Past Events". News from Native California. 17 January 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  13. ↑ "Nevada Museum of Art 2018 Annual Report" (PDF). Nevada Museum of Art. 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
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