(American, b. 1974) Self-taught multimedia artist Melissa Calderón creates bodies of conceptual work around central themes exploring social and political landscapes, drawing upon historical and philosophical references of power, fragility, and perception. She has exhibited her work at El Museo del Barrio, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Queens Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Portland Museum of Art, The Schomburg Center, Arsenal de la Puntilla and Galería 20/20, SmackMellon, CUNY Hunter College, among others. In 2023, she had a solo micro retrospective of embroidery works entitled All the Unheard, at Espacio Reunión in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Her work has been recently included in Public Art in Public Spaces, published by Madison Square Park Conservancy and Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics by Arlene Davila. In 2019, Calderón completed a new monument funded by the City of New York’s Percent for Art Commission’s Monument Fund, becoming the first Latina to create a monument for New York City. Para Roberto, dedicated to humanitarian and baseball player Roberto Clemente, is permanently installed in the South Bronx and won the NYC Public Design Commission’s 38th Annual Award for Excellence in Design. Calderón was born and raised in The Bronx, New York.