Bio

Melanie Elyse Brewster (b. Miami, Florida) is a Greek-American interdisciplinary artist and scholar based in New York City. She earned an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2024 and her PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Florida in 2011.

Brewster’s solo exhibitions include: Brazosport College Art Gallery (Lake Jackson, TX) and a forthcoming show at Wave Hill (Bronx, NY) in 2026. Selected group shows include: Wönzimer Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), The CAMP Gallery (Miami, FL), The Invisible Dog Art Center (Brooklyn, NY), La Mama Galleria (Manhattan, NY), Gallery 263 (Cambridge, MA), Arts Warehouse (Delray Beach, FL), Clara M. Lovett Art Museum (Flagstaff, AZ), and Koehnline Museum of Art (Chicago, IL). 

She has been an artist-in-residence at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and ChaNorth. In 2026 she will hold a Space & Time Artist Residency at Guttenberg Arts in New Jersey.

Focusing on stigma and queer futurities, she has been a professor in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology at Columbia University since 2011. Brewster has published over 75 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and a book, Atheists in America, on experiences of marginality and stress in the United States. She previously served as an editor for the Journal of Counseling Psychology as well as Secularism and Nonreligion. Her research has been featured in media outlets such as CNN, NPR, Vice News, and the CBC. Notably, LGBTQ workplace research she conducted with colleagues was used in APA’s amicus brief for the 2020 SCOTUS case on Title VII discrimination protection.

She has received awards from the American Psychological Association (APA) such as: the Fritz & Linn Kuder Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Counseling Psychology, Early Career Award for Contributions to LGBT Counseling Psychology, Women of Color Psychologies Award, Barbara Kirk Award, Psychotherapy with Women Award, among many others. She was selected to be a Public Voices Fellow in 2017 by Columbia University.

Brewster maintains a studio in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn.

Vitae

Abbreviated Art CV is available here

Psychology CV is available here.

Education

  • School of Visual Arts, MFA Art Practice, July 2024

  • University of Florida (APA accredited), Ph.D. Counseling Psychology, August 2011

  • University of Florida, B.S. Psychology & B.A. Criminology, December 2005; M.S. Psychology, May 2008

Professional license

New York State, Psychologist, #022625

Solo + Two Person Shows

2026 	A metaphysical quest for the deepest backbend, Wave Hill Public Garden & Cultural Center (forthcoming), Bronx, NY
2024	Wolfmotherhood, Brazosport College Art Gallery, Lake Jackson, TX
2006	Southern Reflections, two-person show (with John David Eriksen), Reitz Union Gallery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

Selected + Recent Group Exhibitions

2026

  • Interwoven Perceptions, Stairwell Gallery, American Fabrics Arts Building (forthcoming), Bridgeport, CT

2025

  • Plus 1.2, Peep Space, Tarrytown, NY

  • Sustenance + Survival, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA) Gallery, New York, NY

  • Six Degrees, Rachel Ralph Gallery, Denver, CO 

  • Phantom Body, Gloria’s, New York, NY

  • Beyond the Veil, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA

  • The Future Belongs to the Loving, MAPSpace, Port Chester, NY

  • Bodies, Arts Warehouse, Delray Beach, FL

  • Hair–Untangling Identity, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA) Gallery, New York, NY

  • 14th Annual National Juried Exhibit, Carroll Gallery, Marshall University, Huntington, WV

2024

  • Goddesses and Monsters: Toward a Feminist Iconography, SUNY Potsdam Art Museum, Potsdam, NY

  • When we gather, The Canopy Program, New York, NY

  • A Racket of Banshees, Wönzimer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 

  • Island Luminaria & Flaming Creatures Crawl, FluxHouse on Governors Island, New York, NY

  • Inflection Point: Gender Futures, Political Possibilities, Koehnline Museum of Art, Oakton College, Chicago, IL  

  • We Got The Power, The CAMP Gallery, Miami, FL

  • A Sense of Place, Clara M. Lovett Art Museum, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ

  • Evidence of Things Unseen, Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY

  • Collage on Screen, Kolaj Fest New Orleans, New Orleans, LA

  • Dress, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA) Gallery, New York, NY

  • Every Woman Biennial, La Mama Galleria, New York, NY

  • What If We Lose The Ground, Accent Sister, Jersey City, NJ

  • Conceptually Green, Arts Warehouse, Delray Beach, FL

2023

  • This is not a doll’s house, The CAMP gallery, Miami, FL

  • Excessive Measures, Vestige Concept Gallery, Pittsburg, PA

  • The Magic Silver Show: Juried Photomedia Exhibition, Clara M. Eagle Gallery, Murray State University, Murray, KY

  • Nature Takes its Course, juried show, Gramercy Gallery, New York, NY

  • In the Time of Climate Change, juried by Jared Yazzie, Wailoa Center, Hilo, Hawaii 

  • Studio Works, juried by Derek Weisberg, Macy Gallery, New York, NY 

  • Pink, Arts Warehouse, Delray Beach, FL

  • Future Fair Booth, curated by Paradice Palase, New York, NY

 

Artist Statement

As an interdisciplinary artist, I engage in a robust research-based practice to build new mythologies of worship, care, and mourning. Primarily working in sculpture and fiber, I construct parafictional installations and intimate ritual objects with clay and found materials (i.e., family heirlooms, upcycled fabrics). Often depicting feminine hybrid creatures and false deities, my work distorts and retells traditional narratives of sexuality, gender, and kinship from a contemporary queer lens. With surreal heraldic imagery and campy deconstructed banners, I trouble the bizarre paradoxes inherent in spiritual and ‘wellness’ practices to foster new forms of unconventional belief.

To stay up to date on current work and exhibitions, follow me on instagram or join my mailing list.

Verse & Twirl, Missouri Western State University, (25 April 2019 projection during poetry reading by Kwame Dawes with dance performance), St. Joseph, MO

From “Sympoietic Encounters: Making-With in the Sixth Great Extinction” (Jan 26 - Feb 12, 2023, SVA Gramercy Gallery, 209 East 23rd Street, New York) curated by Yindi Chen and Maria Markham. Exhibition catalogue linked here.

Installation view of Palo Santo, Candle & Crystal, and Evil Eye masks (2022).

Still from Pandemic Weavings, 2020, performance documentation, Wassaic, NY.