BIO
Mélanie Dumas (b. Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian sculptor based between Montreal and New York. Working primarily with steel and porcelain, she creates minimal sculptural installations that explore the relationship between built environments and living bodies. Combining steel forms with porcelain animal figures, her work considers the tension between protection and control, asking how systems intended to provide safety can also produce vulnerability and constraint.
She draws from collective infrastructures designed to protect, organize, and contain, placing them in dialogue with fragments of animal bodies. Her minimal steel sculptures borrow from familiar architectural forms, suggesting support and stability while reflecting on the limits of environments built to regulate movement, space, and behavior. More recently, she has introduced porcelain forms inspired by deer, caribou, and swans, creating installations in which fragile bodies exist in uneasy relationship with industrial structures.
Dumas received her BFA in Visual and Media Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2023 and her MFA in Studio Art from New York University in 2026. Her work has been exhibited at 80WSE Gallery (New York), Galerie de l'UQAM (Montreal), Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme (Montreal), the Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides (Saint-Jérôme), Plural Art Fair (Montreal), and Fais-moi l’art (Montreal). She is the recipient of the NYU Artistic Practice Award, the Leon & Janet Hariton Sculpture Scholarship, and grants from Artch (Loto-Québec), Matières premières, the Fondation de soutien aux arts de Laval, and the Claude F. Lefebvre Grant.
CV
Born in Montreal, Canada
Resides and works between New York and Montreal
EDUCATION
2026 MFA in Studio Art, New York University
2023 BFA in Visual and Media Arts, Université du Québec à Montréal
EXHIBITIONS
2026 EGGSHELL, 80WSE Gallery, New York, NY
2025 STIFF STIFF, 80WSE Gallery, New York, NY
2025 PLURAL (Loto-Québec x artch), Grand Quay of the Port of Montreal, Qc
2025 10BRICKS, 80WSE Gallery, New York, NY 2024 ARTCH, Place Ville-Marie, Montreal, Qc
2024 ATLAS, NÉBULEUSES DU SPHINX, Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides, Qc
2023 FAIRE APPARAÎTRE, 945 Av. Beaumont, Montreal, Qc
2023 PASSAGE À DÉCOUVERT, Galerie de l’UQÀM, Montreal, Qc 2023 PARCOMÈTRES VI, Art Mûr, Montreal, Qc 2023 PARAMÈTRES, Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme, Montreal, Qc
2022 PASSAGE ENTRE LES PLEINS ET LES VIDES, Popop Gallery, Montreal, Qc
2022 PARCOMÈTRES, Fais-moi l’art, Montreal, Qc
GRANTS & AWARDS
2026 Artistic Practice Award, NYU
2025 Leon & Janet Hariton Sculpture Scholarship, NYU
2024 Steinhardt Graduate Scholarship, NYU
2024 Artch (Loto-Québec), Grant 2023 Matières premières Scholarship, UQÀM
2023 Claude F. Lefebvre, Grant
2023 Fondation de soutien aux Arts de Laval, Excellence Grant
2022 Fondation de soutien aux Arts de Laval, Excellence Grant 2022 AÉMAV (UQÀM), Grant
SELECTED PRESS
Manon Pouliot, Sarah Kitzy Gineau Delyon (2025, April 3). Plural (Loto-Québec x artch) : Et si les moulins tournaient sans ne jamais s’arrêter. Plural Art Fair. https://www.plural.art/blogue/loto-quebec-x-artch-et-si-les-moulins-tournaient-sans-ne-jamais-sarreter
Alex Pouliot, Andy Maple (2024). Artch ‘24 - Making a Living. Pièce jointe édition. (P. 84-89)
Signé Laval (2023, June 6). Mélanie Dumas - Coup de Coeur Signé Laval 2023 FSAL. Signé Laval.https://signelaval.com/fr/magazine/melanie-dumas-coup-de-coeur-fsal-signe-laval-2023
PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
2026 Spring: Adjunct professor, New York University – Steinhardt: Drawing I for Non-Majors
2025 Fall: Adjunct professor, New York University – Steinhardt: Drawing I for Non-Majors. 2025 Spring: Course assistant, New York University – Steinhardt: Drawing I for Non-Majors