Melissa Van Havere

Melissa Van Havere finished her bachelors in painting at Sint-Lucas Antwerpen last year and is currently completing her masters there in the autonomous context.

In her artistic practice animals play the lead. With her work she wants to question and shed light on the current relationship and dynamics between human-animals and non-human animals.

Melissa is, in different ways, critiquing how we’re treating animals in our society. The slaughtering and eating of countless animals, robbing birds and other animals of their freedom, killing insects just because they exist,… All the ways we harm animals like they are objects to be used by humans.

She uses different techniques to bring her ideas into the world. Painting, installations, performances, ceramics,… You can recognize her work by the bright colors, humor and a playful, naïve style. She mainly uses oil paint on canvas, ceramics, plaster and papier-maché.

Experimenting is very important to her. Sometimes this results in imperfections, but it’s a conscious choice to not always conceal these and use them to her advantage. She says they’re an important part of the process and they can make an artwork truly unique.

The goal of her work is to make people reflect on our relationship with the animals whom we share this earth with. Melissa wants to raise awareness about the absurd and ‘inhuman’ way we treat animals. By addressing this in a lighthearted manner she hopes to plant a seed of empathy, so the change can come from within. She doesn’t want to create shocking works that make people look away but images that encourage truly thinking about everything that’s happening.