Weaving together narrative and modelmaking to create speculative worlds, Mel's practice builds from research on planning, housing, data and place. Whether sculptures or artist books, each piece draws on literary forms, meeting the audience as papery assemblages and intricate etched surfaces that conceal layers of digital making within. Mel is increasingly interested in how projects can take place outside the gallery space; such as zines which return into cities in the pockets of visitors or nestled on hillsides, or performances unfolding from packages that arrive through your letterbox and phone. Questions are gathered in her practice: how do we listen to landscapes? How do we piece together public place? How do we map memories to the shifting sites we live in and through? Each piece adds to these questions, keeping plenty of room for the audience to reply with their own answers, building an iterative and reflective process of making.
In 2023, Mel completed her MA in Art and Research Collaboration at IADT, continuing on to join the teaching staff as a tutor in digital fabrication and visualisation. Mel has shown and performed work across Ireland and the UK, including the LAB Gallery, BETA Festival, and Signal Film & Media. At this year’s Dublin Fringe Festival her remote artwork ‘Holdings’ debuted; created in collaboration with Clara McSweeney, the show had a sold-out run, winning the Judges Choice Award for ‘Beyond the Stage’ and earned nominations in two further categories (Best Design and the Fitzmaurice Award). Mel received Arts Council funding through the Agility Award in 2025, was awarded Young Cumbrian Artist of the Year (2020) and second place in the practitioner category of the RIBA Eyeline Awards (2021). Her artworks are held in the collections of the Bodleian Library Oxford, and, more importantly, on the walls and bookshelves of strangers and friends.
Exhibitions and Public Sharing in 2025
‘The Balcony Project’ (Workshop and Zine sharing), Dublin Art Book Fair, TBG+S, Dublin, 2025
‘New Perspectives’ (Group Show), Signal Film & Media, Barrow-in-Furness, November 2025
‘The Balcony Project’ (Zine Launch), Project Arts Centre, Dublin, November 2025
‘Structures of Presence’ (Group Show), BETA Festival, Dublin, November 2025
‘Digital Art Mentorship Scheme’ (Mentee of Nadia J. Armstrong), Arts Council Ireland, October 2025-Present
‘Sankey: Lives Through the Lens’ (Group Show), The Grundy Gallery, Blackpool, October 2025
‘Holdings’ (Remote Performance Artwork), Dublin Fringe Festival, September 2025
‘The City at Ten Kilometers an Hour’ (Collaborative Installation), Conference for Climate and Society, DCU, May 2025
‘The City at Ten Kilometers an Hour’ (Collaborative Installation), Ireland India Conference, DCU, April 2025
‘Liquid Urbanisms’ (Group Show), The LAB Gallery, Dublin, March 2025
Research and Residences
Research Assistant, Academic Planning Office, IADT, October 2025-Present
The Balcony Project, Collaborative Research Group, Project Arts Centre, April 2024-Present
Visualisation Researcher, The Dromore Water Catchment Project, Dromore, June 2024-Present
Research Presentation, Beyond the Paper, DCU, May 2024
Research Assistant, Creative Futures Academy, IADT, February – August 2025
Research Presentation, Urban Studies Foundation, Trinity College Dublin, October 2024
Research Presentation, 2nd Conference of Digital Art in Ireland, University College Cork, June 2024
Artist in Residence, Data Stories, Maynooth University, August 2023 – August 2024
Tutor Demonstrator in Art and Design for Film, IADT, November 2022 – November 2024
Education
Professional Diploma in Digital Making, First Class, NCAD, 2024
Certificate in Teaching and Learning for the Creative Arts, First Class, IADT, 2024
Masters in Art and Research Collaboration, First Class, IADT, 2021-2023
BA(Hons) in Fine Art, First Class, Manchester School of Art, 2016-2019
Extended Diploma in Art and Design, Distinction, Leeds College of Art, 2014-2016
Awards
Judges Choice Award for ‘Holdings’, Dublin Fringe Festival, September 2025
Agility Award, Arts Council Ireland, August 2025
Student of the Year for Postgraduate Art, IADT, March 2023
Young Cumbrian Artist of the Year, Carlisle Institute of Art and Eden Arts, March 2020
Selected Past Exhibitions and Public Sharing
‘Allegories of the Metropolis’ (Duo Show), BETA Festival, Dublin, November 2024
‘Allegories of the Metropolis’ (Residency), screen service, Ireland, October-November 2024
‘Fictions: the Making of Other Worlds’ (Book Fair), Dublin Art Book Fair, TBG+S, November 2024
‘Fringe Was Here’ (Performance Walk), Art and the City, Dublin Fringe Festival, September 2024
‘Distro: the Reading Room’ (Book Exhibition), Muine Bheag Arts, Carlow, August 2024
‘Spill Into Us’ (Journal), Lesbian Art Circle V.II, Dublin, March 2024
‘Barnavave - Tread Softly’ (Group Show), Barnavave, Carlingford, March 2023
‘Collision Project’ (Residency), screen service, Ireland, March-May 2023