Melissa J Harvey (MJ)
Born in Australia, lives and works in Sydney.
Melissa J Harvey (MJ) is a mid-career contemporary artist based in Sydney, Australia, on Gadigal Land. She holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Printmaking from Southern Cross University and a Master of Visual Arts from the Sydney College of the Arts.
MJ’s practice is grounded in a deep engagement with place and the textures of their immediate environment. She works predominantly with recycled cotton clothing and domestic cloth, sourced through local community donation, to create works that speak to memory, materiality, and sustainability. Recent career highlights include presenting their research thesis Pulping Spaces at the IMPACT 10 Printmaking Symposium in Santander, Spain, which was later published in Imprint magazine. MJ’s solo exhibition The Silent Pool was held at Lismore Regional Gallery, and she was invited as a guest artist at the Queensland College of Art and Design (Griffith University), where she further developed her pulp printing techniques.
In 2024, MJ was awarded an artist residency at the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, USA. They were also a finalist in the Burnie Art Prize and will present a solo exhibition at the Print Council of Australia Gallery in Melbourne in 2025.
The pulp medium emerges from a process of cutting, tearing, and mechanically beating cotton clothing and domestic cloth. The Guardian series explores techniques using pigment and aqueous solution in cotton linter pulp. It is a combination of making mould and deckle artist made paper out of natural abaca fibre large cotton quilt covers and blue mechanic overalls. The dream figures themselves serve as stencils for MJ’s pigment spraying experimentation. Through receiving donated used textiles from their immediate community the artist embraces both the physical material and the accompanying stories of each item. These personal histories, at the Morgan Conservatory were, mixed with MJ’s own experiences, creating narratives that they retell through pulp prints and objects meticulously layered with delicately sprayed textural surfaces.
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Artist Statement
“The Guardians are from a reoccurring dream I have been experiencing involving tall dark figures with grand presence where each Guardian has its own personality and part to play. This series of work was made during a residency at Morgan Conservatory, Cleveland, Ohio, USA in 2024.
These dream figures initially caused me distress. They appeared looming and complex, their intentions unclear, leaving me uncertain about what they represented within my subconscious. I believe we process our lived experiences through our dreamscape, a space where we work through life's complexities.
Over time, these mysterious figures revealed their protective nature. What once seemed threatening transformed into something compassionate and I came to recognize them as protective spirits guiding my artistic exploration.
During my waking hours, the dream essence of the guardians morphed with the real-life structures in my immediate environment like rooftop water towers, fire hydrants and brick walls. This profound dream experience and connection to my lived environment became the foundation for this series. Crafted from abaca fibre and recycled cotton quilt covers with layers of pigment infused cotton linter applied using stencilling and spray techniques.
The Guardians stand as testament to the transformative power of dreams, the importance of creative residencies, and the potential for everyday materials to become vessels for profound artistic expression.”
Melissa J Harvey, June 2025
2024
Pigment pulp, sprayed and printed on artist made paper (abaca, cotton linter and recycled cotton clothing fibre), 61 x 46cm