Melissa McGill

Projects

• In the Waves

  In the Waves by artist Melissa McGill, curated by Dodie Kazanjian, was a series of live free public art performances activating the landscape and evoking the urgency of rising sea levels and a rapidly changing climate. The artist invited members of the local community to join the ensemble of this inclusive movement-based public artwork to create a shared meaningful experience about these environmental themes. The ensemble, made up of locals who responded to an open call for participation, ranging in age from 14 to 76 years old, was led by the artist with Davalois Fearon, choreographer.
  The project took place place on the ancestral lands of the Niantic Narragansett Nation at Rough Point in Newport, Rhode Island and was presented by Art&Newport and Newport Restoration Foundation.

   

• Box of Waves

  The Box of Waves series transmits movements in time across different elements, expressing our ongoing dialogue with nature. To open the box is like opening a portal into a moment-in-process—one marked by the perpetual reciprocity of wind and water. Drawing us into water’s inclinations, we engage with them by way of sight, sound, reflections, and movement. Water is as much a vital substance as an expressive language—be this articulated through wind, waves, shifting light and shadow, or the flow of time itself.

• Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant erased, replaced with blossoming cherry trees

  These digital renderings depict Melissa McGill’s proposal to erase the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant and replace it with cherry trees.

• Red Regatta: Riflessi

  Captured during Red Regatta’s performances in 2019 in Venice, these photographic works document the reflections of the red sails as they fleeted together across the Venetian lagoon. An immersive installation of these works was installed at Totah inviting viewers to be surrounded in Venice’s lagoon, bathing in the afterglow of the Red Regatta.

• Eridanus: The River Constellation

  This new body of work is titled Eridanus: The River Constellation referencing one of the largest constellations in the southern celestial hemisphere, represented as a river. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy. Extending farthest in the sky from north to south, it later gave its Latin name to the Po River.  The title connects directly to the Po River, which runs through the centre of Turin and speaks of the connection between the cosmos and the earth by connecting waterways universally. This is the first chapter in this on-going project.

• Reverse Punctuation Constellations

  This series of two sided works on paper is a collaboration with writer Sam Anderson. He responded to Melissa McGill’s public art project, Constellation, with typewritten quotes and original pieces. McGill marked the typewritten pages with graphite, pastel, watercolor, Sumi Ink, and charcoal. Then, punching out the periods, punctuation, pauses and/or spaces in the written works with a Japanese hole punch, she created new constellations, illuminated when light shines through the pages.

   

• Indigo Works

  Water’s gestures are expressed in this new series of natural organic indigo paintings, drawing us into water’s inclinations.

• Quei de la Corte Nova

  On April 11, 2025, Quei de la Corte Nova, a one-night, open-air photographic exhibition in Corte Nova in the sestiere of Castello in Venice was presented by Melissa McGill in collaboration with local residents and Massimiliano Smerghetto, who is a passionate advocate for the vitality of Venetian community life. This event marks the beginning of a year-long period of research and collaboration, which will culminate in a large-scale public work in spring 2026.

   

• Red Regatta

  Red Regatta was an unprecedented independent public art intervention created by artist Melissa McGill that activated Venice’s lagoon and canals with four large-scale regattas of traditional vela al terzo sailboats hoisted with hand-painted red sails in 2019. Presented in collaboration with Associazione Vela al Terzo, curated by Chiara Spangaro, with project manager Marcella Ferrari, the project was co-organized by Magazzino Italian Art, with support from Mazzoleni.

• The Campi

  A sculptural sound project

  Exploring the conversation between the visible and the invisible that defines public space, The Campi invokes daily life in five campi, the open, irregularly shaped public squares that serve as the historic heart of every Venetian neighborhood.

   

• These Waters

  These Waters  is an immersive sculptural installation created at the invitation of and with support from Vacheron Constantin. Composed of five large-scale photographs of New York’s Hudson River on glass, five panels lean against each other and the wall, appearing to be portals into the waters, their size and placement evoking the rise and fall of the tides.  

• Palmas

  Palmas activated the Quarry Pool and encircling paths at Manitoga: The Russel Wright Design Center. It was a two part project : A surround sound installation and a live performance. The work takes its name from the improvised, rhythmic clapping that is an integral part – the heartbeat – of Flamenco. Palmas animated the site aurally, inviting a heightened sense of awareness of the site’s landscape.

• Between the Two

  This body of work explores mapping negative spaces and shadows in space with blown black glass and inky black rubber drawings.

• 100 Breaths

  This series of 100 works on paper is titled 100 Breaths (2016), shown here in a recent exhibition at David Weeks Studio . The artist made each drawing with her breath, blowing metal dust suspended in varnish to create drawings that refer to both geography and the body. The gold, copper and silver forms are highly responsive to ambient light and change throughout the day, as the light changes in the room. They flare up and soften as the viewer moves and looks at them from different angles.

• Call and Response

  It is a time of great change, and it is a time of listening deeply—to each other and to the sounds around us.  In our suddenly quieter world, the sound of the birds can now be heard more clearly.

  This online project invites you to stop and listen. Call and Response refers to the actual format of this project—my call and received responses from around the world—as well as themes of community, connection and conversation. 

   

• Constellation

  Constellation was a large-scale sculptural project installed around the ruins of Bannerman’s Castle on Pollepel Island in the section of the Hudson River that passes through Hudson Highlands State Park. Every evening, as the sun went down, starry lights emerge one by one with the stars of the night sky, creating a new constellation and connecting past and present, light and dark, heaven and earth. Constellation references a belief of the Lenape, the indigenous people of this area, of Opi Temakan, the “White Road” or “Milky Way” connecting our world with the next. The project launched in late June, 2015 and was on view through October 2017.

• Marea

  Taking place in the heart of Venice in Corte Nova from April 30 – May 10, 2026, during the 61st International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia,  Marea is conceived in close partnership between McGill and local Venetian residents and students, creating a community-focused model of artistic resilience at a time of great challenges for Venice.

  Marea has received official support from Venice’s Municipality and is officially endorsed by the Italian National Commission for UNESCO and the Italian Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Mariangela Zappia.

• Shape Shifting

  “Shape Shifting“, 2022

  This sculptural glass installation transmutes a series of two-dimensional, photographic surfaces into an immersive environment, where the subtle play of light and translucency recalls the changing yet constant nature of the tides.

• A Lake Story-Lake Ontario, Toronto, Canada

  A procession of over one hundred canoes moves in unison across Toronto’s eastern Waterfront, each carrying colour field paintings made with pigments sourced from the lake/shoreline and activated by the wind. A Lake Story writes Lake Ontario’s colour story across the sky and water, amplifying the lake’s own voices of vibrancy, ecosystem, and community.