Mel Lamanna is a printmaker/painter living and working on Wadandi country in Dunsborough, Western Australia. Life experiences from a multi-cultural upbringing, travel, and a diverse career in ecotourism, arts and Aboriginal Heritage has given her a unique insight into people, place and culture.
In 2016 Mel enhanced her printmaking skills at Art Print Residence and Studio Asssalt in Spain, which lead to her inclusion in the Spanish publications Romancero Gitano (2017) and Luces de Bohemia (2018). On her return to Australia, Mel graduated from Edith Cowan University with a Bachelor of Arts (Majoring in Visual Arts) and began working from her printmaking studio in Dunsborough to run workshops and create works which are in the private collections of local and interstate patrons.
Mel's current works explore collective apprehensions concerning the dynamics of life and the search for resilience in an unpredictable world. Inspired by her aesthetic appreciation of the ‘poetic mystery’ imbued in religious curios and the natural environment, Mel creates sketches both out in the field and in the studio. Throughout the creative process Mel reworks the initial sketch using various mediums, gaining new perspectives along the way.
Monotype is a form of printmaking that features strongly in Mel’s oeuvre, owing to the gestural nature of the medium. It allows an immediate, undiluted connection between self, subject matter and surface, providing her with the perfect means of communicating her observations of the mutable nature of people and the world they live in.
Past exhibitions featuring Mel’s work include the group show ‘Sketching the South West’ (2019) at BRAG, a solo event during Margaret River Region Open Studio (2020/2021) and a group show ‘North, South, East, West’ (2024) at Angus Watkins Studio. In 2024 Mel won the Ludlow Art Prize for Australian Landscape Painting and was a finalist in the City of Rockingham Art Award, Cossack Art Awards and Perth Royal Art Prize for Landscapes.