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MELISSA A. CALDERON
MELISSA A. CALDERON was born in 1974 and received her BA in Art History from CUNY Lehman College. Using installation, photography, sculpture and video, the foundation of her work remains rooted in exploring the gap of disconnection from traditional roles; whether they are gender or culturally based. She has exhibited at El Museo del Barrio, The Portland Museum of Art, Affirmation Arts, Arte Americas, Longwood Arts Project, Jersey City Museum and The Bronx Museum of the Arts. She lives and works in the Bronx.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I would consider myself a bricoleur of texture & medium; jumping from soft, ephemeral tissues to gilded, resin roosters. I enjoy working in different ways & consider it vital to how I can create a cohesive vision. Using installation, photography, sculpture & video, the foundation of my work remains rooted in exploring the gap of disconnection from traditional roles; whether they are gender or culturally based. Being a Latina artist holds countless cultural connotations that go toe to toe with societal pressures and gendered roles - mother, provider and creator. The work addresses issues of vulnerability, determination and the obsessive thought process of art-making. Working with ephemeral materials such as birch branches, hair, & sculpted tissues, I examine the indeterminacy & potentiality of the artists' "road less traveled"; from change through the process of becoming.
Feelings of estrangement and displacement are present in the Cultural Osmosis for the Native Gringa series; examining stereotypes and questionable symbols of the transnational Latino experience; paying homage to them but also questioning the wide acceptance of negative, commercialized ideologies that become synonymous with Latino culture.