A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
Melissa has long wavy hair and stands in front of a wall of textiles.

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Melissa Leandro

Lecturer

Contact

Bio

MELISSA LEANDRO (American, b.1989) lives and works in Chicago, IL. 

Awards: Leandro was awarded the Artadia Award (2021), the Craft Fellowship Grant, from the Illinois Arts Council (2020), the Wingate Artist Fellowship from Vermont Studio Center Residency (2021). 

Exhibitions: She has had recent solo exhibitions at The University Club of Chicago (Chicago, IL), Union League Club of Chicago (Chicago, IL), Rockford University (Rockford, IL) and the Wright Museum of Art (Beloit, WI), ANDREW RAFACZ Gallery (Chicago, IL), and Frieze Art Fair NYC (2020+2021), Intersect Palm Springs (2023), Expo Chicago (2023). Recent group exhibitions include NADA Fair (Miami,FL), DePaul Art Museum (Chicago, IL) and The Lubeznik Center for the Arts (Michigan City, IN). She has participated in residencies, including The Vermont Studio Center, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, The Ragdale Foundation, Crosstown Arts, The Textiel Lab, BOLT- Chicago Artists Coalition. 

Education: MFA (2017) and a BFA (2012) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is presently at the Art Institute as a Lecturer. Leandro is represented by Andrew Rafacz Gallery in Chicago. Her work is included in numerous public and private collections.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This advanced course investigates stitching as a critical and material practice for transforming the surface, structure, and meaning of textiles and other pliable substrates. Students pursue a strong personal direction while developing technical vocabulary alongside conceptual concerns, moving across hand stitching, embroidery, needlework, beading, free motion sewing, hand and machine quilting on long arm machines, digital embroidery design and output, and fabric dyeing or dispersion methods. The course explores gesture, line, speed, slowness, process, and materiality, with emphasis on surface manipulation, scale, and the relationship between material knowledge and conceptual meaning.
Emphasis is placed on independent, self-directed studio work, using technical processes as tools for inquiry rather than ends in themselves. Lectures, visiting artist talks, field trips, equipment tutorials, and readings situate student work within broader discourses around labor, domesticity, identity, materiality, and the politics of craft. Group critiques, peer reviews, and one-on-one faculty advising support individual goals while fostering dialogue about contemporary issues in the field. Coursework includes critiqued projects, technical samples, and reading responses.

Class Number

1395

Credits

3