July 2022: Melissa Melero-Moose
It seems in Nevada, the topography and terrain stretching across our state naturally reflects, without effort, the diversity and history of its people. From urban cities to rural communities, from lush grass valleys to snow-peaked mountain ranges, from 5th generation Nevadans to this land’s indigenous inhabitants for millennia, adaptation to environment is evident everywhere we look.
Northern Paiute artist, Melissa Melero-Moose addresses the history of adaptation and transformation, in both society and nature, not only in her own exquisite paintings, but also in her curatorial and educational work as founder of the Great Basin Native Artists collective.
Paired with this topic of land, adaptation, and transformation, the Nevada State Museum invites you to learn about the ecosystem of desert adaption with the Curator of Natural History, George Baumgardner, during their July Curator’s Corner presentations at the museum 1:00 to 3:00 pm, July 6 and 20.
Together as Nevadans, let us study the past, honor the present, and envision the future.
This month, it is my pleasure to present… Melissa Melero-Moose!
Melissa Melero-Moose
“It is amazing the things you can get used to. Well, at least try to anyway.”
~ Melissa Melero-Moose, Nevada Humanities ‘Thankfulness, Art, and the View from Above’, 2020
“Indian people, even though so much of the population was wiped out, we never stopped creating. If you want to look at our history, and specifically our art history, it always continued. So, we made it past our apocalypse. We’re always here, we’re still here.”
~ Melissa Melero-Moose, Nevada Independent, ‘Indy Q+A’, 2021
Melissa Melero-Moose was born in San Francisco, CA in 1974 and spent most of her childhood living near Reno, Nevada. She is a Northern Paiute enrolled with the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe with family ties to the Fort Bidwell Paiute in California. Melissa holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico and a Bachelor of Science from Portland State University, Oregon.
She exhibits her art regionally and nationally and has won numerous awards and acknowledgement for her work. She has received artist residencies and fellowships from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, NYC, New York; School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Southwest Association of Indian Arts and the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada; and the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Melissa currently lives in Hungry Valley, Nevada working as a professional artist, founder of the Great Basin Native Artists (GBNA) art collective, and gallery curator for the Great Basin Native Artists Gallery at the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum. Her works are a part of the permanent collections of the Autry Museum, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Nevada State Museum, Carson City, Nevada; School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Lilley Museum of Art, University of Nevada, Reno; and the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada.
THE ART
The layered acrylic constructions of Melissa Melero-Moose’s paintings preserve a cultural landscape. Upon plastic drop clothes draped across the floors of her studio, she collects elements found in nature, composes them in a silent language of geometry and symbolism, and then embeds them in a coating which acts like a museum vitrine, allowing us to peer into these layers and discover the traditions of her peoples and her own personal history. The selection of organic media — willows, tules, cattails, and pine nuts — all refer to the culture of the Paiute people’s food and resources, while the impression of these earthly items, geometrically arranged and presented nebula-like color palettes, evokes a solitary effort of mapping galaxies.
Such are the linear works from the Basket Series, which radiate the intended indigenous basket making and beading references. However, these works, when exhibited closely together on a wall, seem like swatches of plowed earth as seen from a plane window, flattened, and communicating ancient languages to the sky. In these awesome moments the works seem futuristic. The transformation of earthly media into this sort of social binary code is stunning.
Burden Basket with Pine Nuts, 2018
Mixed media with pine nuts on canvas, 30″ x 40″
Private collection
“The depth she creates in her work with deliberate placement of natural elements (pine nuts and willows) is empowering to the first people of this land. With every one of her art pieces, Melissa’s integration of Indigenous foods or plants which have sustained our Paiute people for thousands of years, reminds us that our beautiful, healing, and resilient traditions are ever present.”
Stacey Montooth, Walker River Paiute, Executive Director, Nevada Indian Commission
And while the artist recognizes her work as environmentally conscious, so too is the artist conscious of the work needed to create opportunities in bringing public visibility and awareness of contemporary native artists. Whether serving as a former commissioner on the City of Sparks Arts and Culture Advisory Committee, as a governor-appointed board member of the Nevada Arts Council, or as one of the only 25 national recipients of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant , Melissa identifies that creative visibility often requires institutional recognition. In efforts to develop native inclusion and accessibility in high-profile exhibitions and catalog opportunities, she founded the Great Basin Native Artists, a collective of Indigenous artists living in, or originally from, the Great Basin areas of Nevada, California, Southern Oregon, Southern Idaho, and Utah.
These efforts in creating layers of local, state, and national institutional permeance of indigenous voice and visibility are akin to the several finishing coats of acrylic brushed on her own paintings in efforts to preserve her culture.
Inheritance: Basketry and Art of the Great Basin, the most recent exhibition curated by Melissa Melero-Moose, is currently on display through September 30, 2022 at the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum in Carson City and displays pieces by invited artists from the Great Basin Native Artists collective, the Great Basin Native Basket Weavers Association, and the permanent collection of the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum.
Among the contemporary artists featured in this exhibition are Ben Aleck, Leah Brady, Loretta Burden, Rebecca Eagle, Sandra Eagle, Karma Henry, Micqaela Jones, Everett Pikyavit, Roger Salas, and Tanaya Winder.
The artist shares the following poem, included in the exhibition. Melissa shares, “It has everything to do with why I create and do what I do.”
Being
By Tanaya Winder
Wake up, greet the sun, and pray.
Burn cedar, sweet grass, sage—
sacred herbs to honor the lives we’ve been given,
for we have been gifted these ways since the
beginning of time.
Remember, when you step into the arena of your life,
think about those who stand beside you, next to, and with you.
Your ancestors are always in your corner, along with your people.
When we enter this world, we are born hungry,
our spirits long for us to live out our traditions
that have been passed down for generations.
Prayer, ceremony, dance, language—our ways of being.
Never forget you were put on this earth for a
reason—honor your ancestors.
Be a good relative.
For more information on Melissa Melero-Moose, please visit her website.
Access Denied, 2022
Mixed media with pine nuts on canvas, 36” x 48”
Collecting Pine Nuts, 2019
Mixed media with pine nuts on canvas, 30” x 40”
Private collection
Her Place in Space, 2020
Mixed media with willow on canvas, 36″ x 36″
Mark Steel Wool Salinas is a Reno-based public arts administrator and cultural curator. He is the Senior Project Manager at Forecast Public Art developing arts and culture master plans, public art policies, and creative workforce strategies for non-profits, developers, airports, as well as municipal, county, and state arts agencies nationwide. He serves locally as a board member for the City of Reno Arts & Culture Commission (Chair), the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, the Nevada Arts Council, and Americans for the Arts Public Art Network Council. Alongside Nevada First Lady Kathy Sisolak and the Nevada State Museum in Carson City, he established ‘The First Lady presents…’ in 2019 and serves as its Curator. Follow him on Instagram: @MarkSteelWoolSalinas