On View: October 13 – November 23, 2022

Melissa Haviland is an artist who lives and works in Athens, Ohio. Haviland’s print installations take over the gallery, often becoming a bit too much, while questioning the objects in our lives and the personal, cultural, and economic power they have over us. She received a BFA from Illinois State University in 1998 and an MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2002. Currently, Haviland is a professor at Ohio University where she teaches printmaking and papermaking and is the chair of the Print Area and the director of study of the Honors Tutorial College Studio Art program.

Artist Statement

I once read that economies only thrive if they have a labor force to take advantage of. This has always been true–slaves, serfs, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, migrant laborers, blue collar, and gig-workers built our economies. The “Flourish” project is a set of screenprinted wallpapers and screenprints on handmade linen paper that emulate the Flora Danica tableware pattern with botanical illustrations of colonial cash crops drawn in their centers. Flora Danica refers to both a set of Danish scientific botanical illustrations and the most expensive china pattern still made today–both originating in the late 1700’s. “Flourish” begins discussions about economies, class, and labor by bringing together crops that exploited or currently exploits populations with the exclusive Flora Danica dinnerware.