Melinda Kiefer Santiago
Education
2021 Advanced Certificate in Art Education, K-12 Teaching Certification, Hofstra University
2017 MFA, Purchase College, SUNY, Purchase, NY, cum laude
2011 BS in Art, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, cum laude; 2010 SACI, study abroad program, Florence, Italy
AWARDS/GRANTS
2022 Flux Factory, Governors Island, NY, Best Costume Ensemble, Parade of the Species
2021 Hofstra University, Dean’s Scholarship, Departmental Scholarship
2015—2017 SUNY Purchase College, Presidential Scholarship, NIAF Filomena C. Peloro Scholarship
2011 Skidmore College, Highest Honors Thesis Exhibition, Jesse Solomon Memorial Painting Award & Student Grant
2010 Studio Art Centers International, Florence Italy, Consortium Scholarship, full funding for study abroad
2010 Studio Art Centers International, Florence, Italy, Best in Show, Juried Student Exhibition
2010 Skidmore College, Tang Museum Award, Juried Student Exhibition
2009 Skidmore College, Soave Fair Award, Juried Student Exhibition
2009 Skidmore College, Tang Museum Party Installation Grant
2008 Skidmore College, Tang Museum Party Installation Grant
2007—2011 Skidmore College, Anne Reid Scholarship, Columbus Citizens Foundation Scholarship
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Sunroom Pop Up, When the Sky Falls We Rise to Meet it (artist-run, curated with Chris Santiago)
2020 HiLo, Catskill, NY, There is No Thought without a Phantasm (w/ collaborative partner, Chris Santiago)
2019 Flowers For All Occasions Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Magicicada
2016 Eco Practicum, Labyrinth Talpidae, Permanent Outdoor Installation in Liberty NY (curated by Tal Beery)
2015 Indiginal Gallery, Baltimore, MD, Rebuilt Recollections
2014 Indiginal Gallery, Baltimore, MD, Indiginal Presents (two person with Ram Sueno)
2011 Round Door Pop Up Gallery, Mt Vernon, NY, Please Knock; Please Sit, Please Pray
2009 Case Gallery, Skidmore College, NY, Reconstruction
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Watchung Arts Center, Watchung, NJ, Of Myth and Men (forthcoming, curated by Christy O’Connor)
2024 Project Farmhouse, New York, NY, Metabolism of Cities, New York, NY (forthcoming, curated by Susan Smith)
2024 IP3 Mixtape (forthcoming, international postcard show, multiple locations, curated by IP3 Collective)
2024 Flux Factory, Governors Island, NY, Island Luminaria (curated by Sally Beauty)
2024 SVA Flatiron Gallery, Traces: Memory, Nature, and the Body (curated by Rachel Cohen)
2024 Paradice Palase, Brooklyn, NY, 7th Anniversary Salon Show
2024 CUNY CSI Gallery, Staten Island, NY, The Waking Dreams of Phantasmata Traumata (curated by Siona Wilson)
2024 ABC No Rio, New York, NY, Better Red than Dead (curated by Yasmeen Abdallah, Robert Goldkind)
2023 LABspace, Hillsdale, NY, Holiday
2023 Studio 9D, New York, NY, Sloom
2023 ChaShaMa 227 W 29th St, New York, NY, Dream Alliance (co-curated with Chris Santiago)
2023 A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Immigrant Centuries
2023 SEPTEMBER Gallery, Kinderhook, NY, Freaky Flowers
2023 1 West Grand Ave, Chicago, IL, BLINK (curated by David Wong)
2022 Rosekill, Kingston, NY, An/aesthetics (curated by Michael Asbill, Lital Dotan, Marielena Ferrer, Emilie Houssart)
2022 SVA Flatiron Gallery, New York, NY, Hot Box (curated by Rachel Cohen)
2022 Flux Factory, Governors Island, NY, Parade of the Species (curated by Sally Beauty)
2021—2022 Unison Arts Center, New Paltz, NY, Owning Earth (curated by Tal Beery)
2021 Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn, NY, So Gathering Seems Essential
2020 Long Island City Artists, Drawings in a Time of Social Distancing (online)
2020 Gallery Petite, Brooklyn, NY, Osmosis (curated by Tenzin Doma Lama)
2020 Pari Passu Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Semiotic Materialism
2018 7 Belvidere, Brooklyn, NY, Shipping Container (curated by Sally Beauty)
2018 The Living Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Living Gallery 7-Year Anniversary
2018 SEPTEMBER Gallery, Hudson, NY, Recognize You When She Sees You
2017 Art OMI, Ghent NY, Art OMI Staff Show
2017 Richard & Dolly Maass Gallery, Purchase NY, MFA Thesis Show
2017 Equity Gallery, New York, NY, Artefactual (curated by Faye Hirsch)
2016 Richard & Dolly Maass Gallery, Purchase, NY, Stolen, Lost, Disappeared (curated by Faye Hirsch)
2015 Richard & Dolly Maass Gallery, Purchase, NY, Stolen, Lost, Disappeared (curated by Faye Hirsch)
2014 Old Man Hustle Space, Purgatory with Pinatas, Brooklyn, NY (curated by Andrea B.)
2013 Schick Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, The Muse at Home
2012 Louise McCagg Gallery, Barnard College, New York, NY, Enduring Ephemera (curated by Ada Wright Potter)
2012 The Loom Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Hello Earth (curated by Sophie Grant)
2011 Tang Teaching Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, Senior Thesis Exhibition
2010 SACI Gallery, Florence, Italy, SACI Student Exhibition
SELECTED PERFORMANCES
2024 Foxtrot Farm & Flowers, Stanfordville, NY, Unruly Edges (curated by Charlotte Woolf, with Chris Santiago)
2023 , 2022 Flux Factory, Governors Island, NY, Solstice Species Sashay Parade (curated by Sally Beauty)
2023 , 2022 Rosekill, Kingston, NY, An/aesthetics (collaboration with Chris Santiago)
2021 , 2020 The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY, Haunted Mill, & Haunted Parade (collaboration with Chris Santiago)
2018—2020 Dancing Sickness, DIY performances in NYC and Hudson Valley (collaboration with Chris Santiago)
2017 SEPTEMBER Gallery, Hudson, NY, Communion Droplet, Witches Opening Exhibition
RESIDENCIES
2025 Wave Hill, Winter Workspace Program, Bronx, NY (forthcoming, Full Fellowship and Honorarium, Winter 2025)
2024 AIR Byrdcliffe, Woodstock, NY (Summer 2024)
2024 USI, Swale House, Governors Island, NY (Spring 2024)
2023 ChaNorth, Pine Plains, NY (Upstate Art Weekend)
2022 SVA, Painting & Mixed Media, New York, NY
2021 Ox-Bow, Conversations in Practice, full scholarship (online)
2016 Eco Practicum, Liberty, NY, fellowship
CURATION
2024 The Canopy Studio, New York, NY, Little Lightning (co-curated with Group 11 & Andrew Woolbright)
2023 ChaShaMa 227 W 29th St, New York, NY, Dream Alliance (co-curated with Chris Santiago featuring 23 artists)
2021 Craw Mansion, Wassaic, NY, Dream Alliance Summit (DIY performance festival, co-curated with Chris Santiago)
2018 Bohemian Grove, Solstice Show & Performances, Brooklyn, NY, (DIY space, co-curated with Chris Santiago)
PUBLICATIONS/PRESS
2024 “A View From the Easel,” Hyperallergic (by Lakshmi Amin, 232nd Installment)
2023 "Art & Consciousness", Wiley Publishing, (Guest Co-Editor with Chris Santiago, Anthropology Journal Issue)
2023 “Ecologies of Care” Heel & Hive Magazine contributing artist (by Lindsay Skedgell)
2023 “Experimentation, Camaraderie at ChaNorth” , The Millerton News (by Deborah Maier)
2023 “Exhibition Review: ‘Freaky Flowers’ at September Gallery in Kinderhook,” Chronogram (by Taliesin Thomas)
2023 “Art On the Streets,” SVA ContinuEd Newsletter Summer 2023
2021 “Who Owns the Earth?” Owning Earth Exhibition Review, Hyperallergic (by Louis Bury)
2021 “How To Unlearn Drawing,” Zine printed by Ox-Bow School of Art Residency
2016 “Announcing Eco Practicum’s 2016 Artist in Residence,” Eco Practicum (by Tal Beery)
2016 “Lunch,” MoMA PS1 Staff Zine, printed Artbook, MoMA PS1, NY
VISITING ARTIST/LECTURES/PANELS
2024 The New School, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY, guest critic - Textiles
2024 College of Staten Island, Staten Island, NY, The Waking Dreams of Phantasmata Traumata - Artist Panel
2024 University of New Mexico, Taos, NM, artist talk and studio visits - Contemporary Practices, Painting II
2024 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, artist talk and studio visits - Interdisciplinary Art
2023 Spence School, Manhattan, NY, artist talk and painting demo
2022 Anthropology of Consciousness, American Anthropology Association, interdisciplinary online slides lecture
2021 University of Oklahoma, College of Education, Arts Integration, OK, online slides lecture
2020 Unison Arts Center, New Paltz, NY, On Roots and Rooting – Owning Earth Artist Panel, online
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2022—Present, Loyola School, Manhattan, NY, Director of Visual Arts
2019—2021, BRIC Arts Media, Brooklyn, NY, Teaching Artist
2015—2017, Purchase College, SUNY, Adjunct Drawing Professor,Graduate Teaching Assistant – Painting, Art Theory
Christopher Santiago
Education
Ph.D., Anthropology, Columbia University in the City of New York, NY, 2017
Fieldwork: Conducted among indigenous peasant resistance to the Conga gold mine in Cajamarca, Peru.
Dissertation: ¡Conga No Va Carajo! Dissertation Advisors: Michael Taussig, Ph.D., John Pemberton, Ph.D., Valentine Daniel, Ph.D.
PUBLICATIONS
Book Contract for “My Blood, My Life, Everything for Water: Experience as Experimental Method.” Kaleidoscope (Routledge), Manuscript Due May 2025.
“‘You Have To Say It’s Alive!’: Arts of Resistance Among the Guardians of the Lagoons in Cajamarca, Peru.” Article in edited volume. University of Colorado Press, forthcoming 2025.
Santiago, Christopher J. and Kiefer, Melinda, guest editors for “Dream Alliance: Art, Anthropology, and Consciousness.” Anthropology of Consciousness, 2023, 34 (2), 261-615.
“A Brief Hystery of the Phantasm.” Anthropology of Consciousness, 2023, 34 (1), 181-228.
Santiago, Christopher J and Melmed, Michael. “Blood Magic in the Age of Psychopathy, Mass Shootings, and Ecological Catastrophe.” The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2022, 82, 80-111.
“Twilight States: Comparing Case Studies of Hysteria and Spirit Possession.” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2021, 11 (2), 635-659.
“Hystorize From The Self: D.H. Lawrence and ‘The Lovely Lady’.” The Psychoanalytic Review, 2019, 106 (4), 343-370.
“A Cholo Rondero and his Papas.” Under review at The Journal of Peasant Studies: Grassroots Voices.
“Blood River: Andean Messianism Erupts in Peru.” Under review at Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography.
EXHIBITIONS
SOLO
2020 There Is No Thought Without A Phantasm, HiLo Art, Catskill, NY (Collaborative show with Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
2020 As Yet Death Is Not A Festival, Flowers for All Occasions, Brooklyn, NY
2017 As Yet Death Is Not A Festival, Reckless Arts, Boone, NC
2016 Phantasy Art Show, The Living Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
GROUP
2024 The Waking Dreams of Phantasmata Traumata, CSI Gallery, Staten Island, NY (Curated by Siona Wilson)
2024 Anything and Everything the Color Red, ABC No Rio in Exile, Manhattan, NY (Curated by Yasmeen Abdallah and Robert Goldkind)
2023-2024 Holiday Show, LABspace, Hillsdale, NY
2023 Dream Alliance: Art, Anthropology, and Consciousness, ChaShaMa, Manhattan, NY (Group show of 23 artists featured in the Anthropology of Consciousness special issue. Co-curated with Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
2023 Emptiness, Wanis Home Kitchen, Brooklyn, NY (Curated by Tenzin Doma Lama)
2023 Immigrant Centuries, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2021 So Gathering Seems Essential…, Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn, NY
2021 Summer Solstice Dream Alliance Summit, Craw Mama Mansion, Wassaic, NY (Organized and performed in two-day festival)
2021 Raw Vision Weekly #220, Artist Highlight (Online)
2020-2021 Holiday Show, LABspace, Hillsdale, NY
2020-2021 What Would the Egg Do? Parsons Virtual Gallery (Online)
2020 Drawings In a Time of Social Distancing, Long Island City Artists, Inc. (Online)
2020 Osmosis, Gallery Petite, Brooklyn, NY (Curated by Tenzin Doma Lama)
2020 Either/Oreo, Pari Passu, Queens, NY
2017 Reckless to the Nth Degree, Nth Gallery, Boone, NC
PERFORMANCES
2024 Unruly Edges, Foxtrot Farm, Stanfordville, NY (Curated by Charlotte Woolf, collaboration with Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
2023 Solstice Species Sashay, Flux Factory, Governors Island, NY (Curated by Sally Beauty, collaboration with Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
2023 Flaming Creature Crawl, Flux Factory, Governors Island, NY (Curated by Sally Beauty, collaboration with Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
2023 An/aesthetics, Rosekill, NY (Performance with Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
2023 Guerrilla Theater, Washington Square Park, NY (Curated by Maxwell Ables)
2022 An/aesthetics, Rosekill, NY (Performance with Melinda Kiefer Santiago and collaborators)
2022 An/aesthetics, Rosekill, NY (Performance with Melinda Kiefer Santiago and collaborators)
2022 An/aesthetics, Rosekill, NY (Year-long outdoor installation with Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
2022 Parade of the Species, Flux Factory, Governors Island, NY (Curated by Sally Beauty, collaboration with Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
2021 Haunted Mill, The Wassaic Project, NY (Collaboration with Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
2020 The Witch’s Dance, HiLo Art, Catskill, NY (The Lauwghters performance)
2020 Capitalist Vampire Bat Exterminator, Haunted Parade, The Wassaic Project, NY (Collaboration with Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
2019 Living Gallery 7-Year Anniversary, The Living Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (Dancing Sickness performance)
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2024 Byrdcliffe Artist Residency, Woodstock, NY
Participated in Open Studios as part of Upstate art Weekend.
2023 ChaNorth Artist Residency, Pine Plains, NY
Participated in Open Studios as part of Upstate Art Weekend. Reviewed in The Millerton News, “Experimentation, camaraderie at ChaNorth.”
2022 Parade of the Species, Flux Factory, Governors Island, NY
Award for best costume ensemble with Melinda Kiefer Santiago.
2009 FLAS Summer Fellowship
A Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship. Funded the study of Quichua at the Andes and Amazon Field School on the Napo River, Ecuador.
2008 ILAS Research Travel Grant
Awarded by the Institute of Latin America Studies at Columbia University. Funded travel expenses for fieldwork in Vilcabamba, Ecuador.
TEACHING & WORK EXPERIENCE
Doctoral Lecturer, College of Staten Island (CUNY), Staten Island, NY 2022-Present
Leading the Critical Criminology and Social Justice Minor
Taught “Research Seminar” and “Sociology Internship.”
Adjunct Professor, College of Staten Island (CUNY), Staten Island, NY 2018–2019, 2020–2022
Taught “Class, Status and Power,” “Understanding Our Worlds,” “Cultural
Anthropology,” “Power and Society in Latin American,” “Social Analysis,” and
“Policing and Mass Incarceration.”