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I have a book. A monograph actually, featuring over a decade of work published by Maus Contemporary. A book made possible by some amazing scholars, curators, galleries, and a supportive husband. Thank you Zachary Small, Wendy Vogel, Anna Viola Hallberg, Guido Maus, and Shane Aday. I have no words, but I have a lot of love and gratitude.

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Join us at Maus Contemporary this Friday, Oct. 28 (6-8pm) and discover Melissa Vandenberg’s newly published monograph “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em”.

Books will be available for purchase at the gallery and artist Melissa Vandenberg will be present to sign your copy during the opening reception for the exhibitions Clayton Colvin “bots and loops” and Taj Matumbi “Westword”.

Melissa Vandenberg

“smoke ‘em if you got ‘em”

with texts by Wendy Vogel, Zachary Small, and Anna Viola Hallberg

Hardcover, 428 pages, full color

approx. 12 by 9.6 in.

(ca. 30,7 by 23,7 cm)

ISBN: 978-0-9988397-1-4

@zacharyhsmall @wendylvogel @avhallberg

#ClaytonColvin @cvcolvin #TajMatumbi @matumbi_studio #MausContemporary @mauscontemporary

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Bra Bröd | Video Portrait | Duration 1.00 min. | 2020 DISTANCIO, Värnamo, Sweden

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TEMPER AND CONDUCT April 9, 2021 - June 26, 2021 Alabama Contemporary Art Center | Mobile, Alabama

WORK BY KATIE HARGRAVE | MELISSA VANDENBERG

Temper and Conduct examines the history and lore of the snake as a notorious American symbol, the fear serpents evoke, and the ways these symbols are employed today in mythology as local as that of Mobile, or as broad as the countless uses of the Gadsden flag.

The history of the snake in American and Alabamian ideology is fundamentally a material history. Had newspapers not published an article by “An American Guesser” (known now to be Ben Franklin) recording descriptions of military flags with images of rattlesnakes, had French explorers notebooks not described the serpent tattoos covering the torso of who history has decided was the co-founder of Mobile, the resulting visual culture would not remain pertinent.

Vandenberg and Hargrave take up that material history with a sewing needle, while local tattoo artists Rachael Ellzey Black, Suzette Callahan, Tyler Johnson, AJ Ludlow, and Grace Schuessler created flash paintings to explore how the tattoo needle continues to intersect with the story of the serpent.

“Was I wrong, Sir, in thinking this a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America? The poison of her teeth is the necessary means of digesting her food, and at the same time is certain destruction to her enemies. This may be understood to intimate that those things which are destructive to our enemies, may be to us not only harmless, but absolutely necessary to our existence. I confess I was wholly at a loss what to make of the rattles, ’till I went back and counted them and found them just thirteen, exactly the number of the Colonies united in America; and I recollected too that this was the only part of the Snake which increased in numbers. Perhaps it might be only fancy, but, I conceited the painter had shown a half formed additional rattle, which, I suppose, may have been intended to represent the province of Canada.”

-Ben Franklin

Temper and Conduct is part of the Independent Projects program at Alabama Contemporary. Katie Hargrave is a professor at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, and Melissa Vandenberg is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Kentucky University. Their work reflects an interest in fabric, sewing, and the history of Southern textile traditions.

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TEMPER AND CONDUCT NEW WORK BY KATIE HARGRAVE | MELISSA VANDENBERG ALABAMA CONTEMPORARY 2021 | MOBILE, AL Temper and Conduct examines the history and lore of the snake as a notorious American symbol, the fear serpents evoke, and the ways these symbols are employed today in mythology as local as that of Mobile, or as broad as the countless uses of the Gadsden flag. The history of the snake in American and Alabamian ideology is fundamentally a material history. Had newspapers not published an article by “An American Guesser” (known now to be Ben Franklin) recording descriptions of military flags with images of rattlesnakes, had French explorers notebooks not described the serpent tattoos covering the torso of who history has decided was the co-founder of Mobile, the resulting visual culture would not remain pertinent. Vandenberg and Hargrave take up that material history with a sewing needle, while local tattoo artists Rachael Ellzey Black, Suzette Callahan, Tyler Johnson, AJ Ludlow, and Grace Schuessler created flash paintings to explore how the tattoo needle continues to intersect with the story of the serpent. 

Temper and Conduct is part of the Independent Projects program at Alabama Contemporary. Katie Hargrave is a professor at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, and Melissa Vandenberg is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Kentucky University. Their work reflects an interest in fabric, sewing, and the history of Southern textile traditions.

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Home As Situation, Bolivar Art Gallery, University of Kentucky - 2020 “Home is part object, part duty, and part performance. As populations shelter amid COVID-19, we confront the notion of home as a place of both refuge and isolation. Our homes can carry a great deal of privilege or pain–depending on wealth, job security, family, and the immediate community. Through hardship, artists continue to work at home, we continue to create, and ponder how our work, and the world, might change while we weather a pandemic. Stuffed Kirkja and Glerkirkjur are forms where phallic steeples meet the space of home. The shapes are absurd and sexual, an odd architecture for troubled souls. I have revisited the basic iconographic house structure in my studio practice for over 2 decades, but a long trip to Iceland in 2017, inspired another look. Since then, I have made several trips back and forth to Scandinavia, looking for familial connections to my Nordic roots. The simplicity of this familiar house/church is striking, its roofline ideal to shed the elements. It signifies an overlap of male and female attributes to our domestic lives, a place where power is gained and relinquished, and faith offered and discarded

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DISTANCIO was developed in collaboration with the cultural administration (alternately): Cecilia Gustavsson, Gro Knutsen, Lars Alkner and Region Jönköping County: Mike Bode and Märit Lundsten. Curator: Anna Viola Hallberg. Collaboration also took place with Värnamo Hembygdsförening, Historiska Sällskapet Gamla Wernamo. The concept of showroom was developed in response to the pandemic. The artist's month-long stay in Värnamo was canceled and a work for the public space was developed as a hybrid work. On the one hand, Vandenberg worked with Värnamo residents via video link. The material then became the basis for the exhibition in gallery Blickfånget. Videos can be viewed in full screen format. DISTANCIO var satt att se till fyra orter och arbetet med konst i det offentliga rummet. Men då landet och världen  stängdes ner på grund av pandemin mötte vi alla oavsett var i världen vi befann oss en annan verklighet.  Den mellan mänskliga distansen som DISTANCIO kretsar kring fick ytterligare en botten, skapad av det som kom att kallas social distansering. Fyra nya mångfacetterade verk tillkom under sommaren och hösten 2020 Bra bröd / Värnamo - u[ntelling] s[tories], (us) / Tranås - The Happiness Museum / Mullsjö - The Spirit of Gnosjö / Gnosjö. Då de alla på olika sätt arbetar med metoder som relaterar till plats och befolkning kommer det även ske en rad interventioner, screenings, performances och utställningar på de olika orterna och delar av verkproduktionen finns samlat i ett digitalt SHOWROOM. "DISTANCIO arbetar med det mellanmänskliga. Verken genomdriver en normkritik i strävan efter nya samlande faktorer som vänder på avståndsrelationerna genom att definiera nya mittpunkter att samlas kring. Distans kan mätas så väl i tid som i rum. Hur denna läsning görs styrs utifrån vad som ses som den centrala punkten. Detta påverkas av faktorer som vad vi gör och vilken tillhörighet vi har. Något som i sin tur kopplas till vad vi har tillträde till och vad vi ger andra tillträde till. DISTANCIO griper in i socio- och geopolitiska förtätningar. Genom detta ifrågasätts det normativa, det som glider in i status quo och kanske också leder till förminskning av tilltron till demokrati. Gestaltningarna speglar konstnärernas läsning av upplevelser i relation till de fyra orterna" AV 2018 DISTANCIO ingår i ett flerårigt projekt initierat av Region Jönköpings län som initierades 2015, vilket undersöker konsten som samhällsaktör utanför gängse konstinstitutioner. Första utgåvan hette Side-Show. DISTANCIO verkar i gränslandet mellan konst, samhälle och kulturarv. Arbetet fick ett omtag på grund av pandemin som svepte över världen. Detta gjorde att tänkta arbeten inte kunde genomföras enligt plan. Åtgärden blev hybridverk, som arbetade lokalt  via bland annat videolänk. Vidare läsning om detta i respektive showroom.

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”I spent much of my adult life looking for good bread, the bread my grandmother baked for my mom. Not out of some health-conscious or grand moral desire, but simply for taste... a taste of cultural identity. My mother spoke a great deal about the homemade limpa she grew up with. The project in Värnamo will address the personal journey, and almost mythologic relation to various breads. I wish to collaborate with Värnamo residents, and the Småland landscape, to form socially oriented and performative artworks with bread as a primary focus. These interactions will not be heavily scripted, but will be multi-faceted with several tiers of collaborative development."

                                     - Melissa Vandenberg, 2018

Konceptet showroom utvecklades som respons till pandemin. Konstnärens månadslånga vistelse i Värnamo blev inställd och ett verk för det offentliga rummet utvecklades som ett hybridverk. Dels arbetade  Vandenberg med Värnamobor via videolänk. Materialet blev sedan underlag för utställningen i galleri Blickfånget. Fäll gärna ut videor i helskärmsformat

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During the pandemic, baking became something that many people did. In both Sweden and the United States, the debate over face masks was highly agitated. Vandenberg has been employed in phrases such as "home sweet home" as well as in issues related to migration and cultural heritage. In the history of his own family, the artist has a connection to Sweden and to the bread (loaf) that the relatives baked. Vandenberg has experimented with different sourdough recipes and come to master the baking art something that was necessary to be able to design the sourdough works with precision. This was possible through the meeting with Värnamo residents' bread stories, which also gave many other impressions for the artist.

Hösten 2019 hade Melissa Vandenberg möjlighet att besöka Värnamo för att genomföra ett konstnärssamtal samt även för att orientera sig i stadens dynamik och historia. Det gav konstnären möjlighet att knyta an till olika personer som hon skulle arbeta med då hon återvände sommaren 2020. Arbetet låg klart men i mars 2020 tog Region Jönköpings län beslutet att på obestämd framtid skjuta på projektet. I juni kom beslutet om framåtrörelse igen, men då som ett hybridprojekt. Konstnären fick delvis tänka om igen. Vad skulle fungera i den nya tiden? Delar skulle utvecklas lokalt och annat i dialog med Melissa. Under sommaren trycktes vykort upp som bjöd in Värnamobor att dela av sina brödminnen. Dessa utgör nu ett arkiv och installerades tillsammans med gestaltningar av Vandenberg. Verken är gjorda i blandtekniker där garn och knäckebröd samt fotografier av de säregna brödmaskerna.

Melissa Vandenberg lives in the state of Kentucky, USA, where she also works as a professor of art. She would have worked in Värnamo during May-June 2020. Instead, the country and the world were shut down due to the pandemic. A reality that we all had to relate to. The interpersonal distance that DISTANCIO revolves around was given another bottom, created by what came to be called social distancing.

Exhibition: Blickfånget, Gummifabriken Värnamo, Sweden Period: October 22 - November 22, 2020

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Melissa Vandenberg’s work as an artist. Vandenberg’s practice brings together elements of right and left; historical and contemporary; North and South; masculinity and femininity; and ephemerality and permanence in such a way that highlights how these polarities reveal a third, interconnected option. Working in a wide array of media and subjects throughout her career, Vandenberg explores the borders of our thinking and makes us aware of the processes therein.

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Blouin ArtInfo profiled my ongoing exhibition at Robert Henry Contemporary.

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“Fall/Trinity” match burn on Arches 22 X 30 inches (each) 2018

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Recent review of an exhibition I was part of, “Failure In Progress”.

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One of my favorite drawings from last year… “hús hús hús” Ink and water soluble media on random card stock found on street in Reykjavík 5” X 2” 2017

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Some 2017 burn drawings: “Bang Bang 2” “Glory Days” “Vagina China” “Fable” (sold)
match burn on Arches paper
2017

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“Outland” sparkler burn on Arches paper 29.5” X 40” 2017