SPECIAL COMMISSION Season 6

Isabella Mellado

Isabella Mellado (b. 1996 San Juan, Puerto Rico) is best known for her magical realist paintings on latinidad, queer identity and tarot. She works in a wide range of media including painting, photography, costume design, digital collage and sculpture. In combining symbolism from various cultural context, Isabella reckons with personal themes such as being in community, the gender binary, and the sense of duality that is inherent to being part of a diaspora.

She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018 and her Master of Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023. Her work has been featured at Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago, IL; Pulse Contemporary Art Fair in Miami, FL; MoMa PS1 in New York, NY; MECA Art Fair in San Juan, PR; and Walter Otero Contemporary Art in San Juan, PR, among others. Mellado has also completed residency at Ox-Bow in Sagatuck, MI, the Studios at Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.

Learn more on the website.