Melissa Messina

Melissa Messina curated solo exhibitions for such artists as Nick Cave, Whitfield Lovell, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Shinique Smith, and the photography exhibition Room In My Head: Staging Psychological Spaces, among others as the former Senior Curator at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Since the opening of the SCAD Museum of Art in 2011, Messina has curated exhibitions for Uta Barth, Lynda Benglis, Matthew Brandt, Ingrid Calame, Nicola López, Jason Middlebrook, Alex Prager, Tim Rollins & K.O.S., Ursula Von Rydingsvard, and the group exhibition Stretching the Limits: Fibers in Contemporary Painting. Prior to SCAD, Messina was the National Program Director for ArtTable, during which time she developed the public programs for Prospect.1 New Orleans biennial; was a guest curator at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum where she was formerly employed during the Center’s opening in 2006; and was an independent curator in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned a B.F.A. from the Atlanta College of Art, and a M.F.A. from Pratt Institute, where she coordinated its 2005–06 Visiting Artist Lecture Series. Selected publications include: Walking Around in a Garden: Prints by Kiki Smith and Valerie Hammond (forthcoming); Alison Elizabeth Taylor Brings It to the Table; and the curatorial catalogue essays Alexandre Arrechea: The Rules of Play; Clare Rojas: Through the Woods; Chakaia Booker: Sustain; Youssef Nabil: I Live Within You; and Mercy, Patience and Destiny: The Women of Whitfield Lovell’s Tableaux. She is currently the curator of the Mildred Thompson estate.