BIOGRAPHY
Melissa Nuñez was born and raised in Miami, Florida. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Photography from the New World School of the Arts and her Master’s degree in Creative Photography and Museum Studies from the University of Florida.
Nuñez is a Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches analog and darkroom photography. Her work examines landscapes shaped by human intervention, with a focus on hazardous waste and climate change. Through both her artistic practice and pedagogy, she encourages students to engage with hybrid photographic methods that challenge conventional understandings of the medium.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My practice examines industrial landscapes marked by extraction, mass production, and environmental decline. Working primarily with photographic processes, I create images that are subsequently altered through physical and chemical interventions, allowing the materials themselves to echo the instability of the environments depicted.
I am drawn to sites shaped by the ambitions of early twentieth-century industry — spaces where progress and degradation remain visibly intertwined. Rather than presenting these landscapes as static documents, I transform the photographs through acts of erasure, deterioration, and reconstruction. These gestures position the image in a state of continual becoming, suspended between collapse and renewal.
Material disruption functions as both method and metaphor. By destabilizing the photographic surface, I reflect on cycles of consumption and decay while opening space to imagine alternative futures. The work resists closure; instead, it proposes the possibility that within damaged terrains lie conditions for reconfiguration.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS & TEACHING
Lecturer, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
2023–Present
Instructor, Summer Studio Art Camp, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
2026
Photogram Workshop for The Griffin School Freshman Pre College Program, Austin, TX
2025
Instructor, START Pre-College Program, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
2022
Lecturer, Santa Fe College, Gainesville, FL
2020–2021
Instructor of Record, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
2017–2020
Mordancage Workshop, Santa Fe College, Gainesville, FL
2019
Video Editing: Adobe Premiere and After Effects Workshop for Light House Production’s, Gainesville, FL
2020
EDUCATION
MFA, Creative Photography, University of Florida, 2020
MFA, Certificate, Museum Studies, University of Florida, 2019
BFA, Creative Photography, New World School of the Arts, 2016
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Arctic Explorer. Reitz Gallery— Gainesville, FL, 2020
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Alternative Processes, Soho Photo Gallery — New York, NY, 2020
Separate/Together, Southeast Museum of Photography — Daytona, FL, 2020
Time Bombs, Manifest Gallery — Cincinnati, OH, 2019
Exposure, Air Gallery — Manchester, UK, 2019
Unique Alternative Processes, A. Smith Gallery — Austin, TX, 2019
FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES
Knight Foundation Art + Research Center Summer Intensive, Institute of Contemporary Art— Miami, FL, 2020
Bakehouse Art Complex— Miami, FL, 2017
LECTURES / PANELS / TALKS
SPE Annual Conference, Panel discussion on Reframing Collegiate Photography Education— Atlanta GA, 2026
John Miller and Joseph Beuys, Rubell Museum Online Symposium— Miami FL, 2020
Artist Interview, Southeast Museum of Photography— Daytona, FL, 2020
Artist Talk, Alternative Processes Online Reception, Soho Photo Gallery— New York, NY, 2020
AWARDS & GRANTS
Travel Grant, SPE Conference— UT Austin, 2026
(1st place award in sculpture) TAEA Annual Members Art Show— Austin, TX, 2025
(3rd place award in photography) TAEA Annual Members Art Show— Austin, TX, 2025
(3rd place award) Cross Section Exhibition, University of Montana — Missoula, Montana, 2019
Travel Grant, Art Basel— UF, 2019
Jerry Uelsmann Studio Art Scholarship, University of Florida, 2019
Travel Grant, Museum Practicum in New York City— UF, 2018
De La Cruz Collection Scholarship Recipient, Study Abroad: Art History and Museum Studies— China and Hong Kong, 2016
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
Altered State, Solo Exhibition by Lesley Nowlin Blessing—Austin TX, 2025
SA & AH Juried Exhibition. University Gallery— Gainesville, FL, 2020
Women of the Everglades. Florida Natural History Museum— Gainesville, FL, 2020
SA & AH Art Basel Pop-Up Exhibition. The Betsy—Miami, FL, 2019
A Patch of Blue. Museum of Art and Design—Miami, FL, 2016