About Mel

Melanie Winning MA (Distinction)
Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London

Melanie Winning is a contemporary British multidisciplinary artist based in Essex. Working across painting, mixed media, photographic montage, installation and sculptural lighting, her practice explores memory, materiality and place. Her work considers how personal and collective histories are constructed, fragmented and reimagined over time.

Melanie completed a Master of Arts in Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, where she developed a research-led approach grounded in material investigation and critical reflection. This continues to inform her engagement with contemporary cultural and social themes.

Her process involves layering, erasure and reconfiguration, creating surfaces that operate as visual palimpsests. Rather than presenting fixed narratives, her work allows meaning to emerge gradually. Observations of landscape, people and the wider environment are translated into expressive forms that evoke atmosphere rather than direct representation.

Melanie has exhibited in London and elsewhere in the UK and Europe, including at the Medici Gallery, the Wellcome Collection, Firstsite and the Minories. Her work has also been featured in Reclaim Magazine.

Described as “half dream, half reality”, her work often carries a subtle dark undertone. From her Essex studio, Melanie continues to explore displacement, belonging and the shifting nature of perception, creating work that invites a slower and more thoughtful way of looking.

Selected exhibitions and projects

The Blackall Gallery, London — June 2012
The Medici Gallery, Cork Street, London — November 2012
Oude Kerk, Amsterdam — December 2012
The Wellcome Collection, London — August 2012
Solo Exhibition, Merchant Taylors Trust, London — January 2013
The Ripley Gallery, London — March 2013
Camberwell College of Arts, London — October 2013
The Misty Moon Gallery, London — October 2013
Brighton Beach Hut Advent — December 2013
Martin Hebblewhite Gallery, Manningtree — August 2015
Firstsite, Colchester — October 2015
Sudbury Brush Strokes — 2016
Drama in Make-up, solo exhibition, Mercury Theatre, Colchester — 2016
The Minories, Colchester — 2018 and 2025
Solo commission, Age Exchange — 2019
Untitled, King’s Road — 2024
Boomer Gallery, London — 2025