Melissa Laing is an artist, theorist, curator and event producer based in West Auckland, New Zealand.

As an artist she works across the media of film, conceptual writing, print and sculpture. She has exhibited widely overseas including at Performance Space in Sydney, Mercer Union in Toronto, Canada, Kulturzentrum Schlachthof in Bremen, Germany, the Museu de Arte Contemporãnea do Ceará in Fortaleza Ceará, Brazil. In New Zealand she has created projects for Blue Oyster in Dunedin, Enjoy Public Art Gallery in Wellington, The Physics Room in Christchurch, Te Manawa in Palmerston North, as well as Rm, Te Tuhi, Corban Estate Arts Centre, the Auckland Fringe Festival, Audio Foundation and Te Uru in Auckland and Sculpture on the Gulf on Waiheke.

Melissa is the lead researcher for Stable Spaces, an initiative funded by Manatū Taonga to develop resources for space ownership in the arts and for the Performance Ethics Working Group, an initiative of the University Without Conditions. She was the director of the Urban Walking Festival from 2019 to 2022 and currently guides the digital strategy for the Going West Writers Festival. Between 2014 and 2021 she worked as the Whau Community Arts Broker, an initiative of the Whau Local Board to support temporary arts activations across a local area. She has a PhD from the University of Sydney and her writing has been published in magazines, academic journals, and exhibition and artist catalogues.

Download her short CV here (updated October 2024)