Melissa Vandenberg received her BFA from College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI (1999) and an MFA in Sculpture from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL (2005). Her work has been exhibited in Canada, Germany, Luxembourg and extensively throughout the United States. She has received numerous grants including a Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist Enrichment Grant, the Al Smith Fellowship and was recently shortlisted for the Luxembourg Art Prize. Her studio practice explores the political landscape using national identity, folk art, ancestry, immigration and the perception of a homeland as points of departure. She gravitates to everyday materials like matches, fabric, stickers, wood, temporary tattoos and found objects. Born and educated in Detroit, Melissa Vandenberg is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and curator living and working in Richmond, KY where she is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Kentucky University.
