Dr Melanie King (n.d., Manchester, UK) is a working class artist and curator, originally from Manchester, UK. Melanie is now based in Kent, UK. She is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. Melanie is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University. She has recently completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art. She is represented by the Land Art Agency. Melanie is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality. In her work, Melanie intends to highlight the intimate connection between photographic materials and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching several sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice.
Solo exhibitions include Constellations Albion House, Ramsgate, UK (2025); In Praise of Raw Data, Salon Margate, UK, (2025); Precious Metals: The Cosmic Origin Of Silver and Palladium, Photofusion, London, UK, July (2022); Big Day Film Collective, Philadelphia, USA, September (2021); Wavelengths, Photo Co-Op Folkestone, UK, February (2021); Lunar Portraits, Leeds Art University, UK (2020); Ancient Light, Lumen URC, Bloomsbury Festival, London, UK, October (2019); Ancient Light, Blyth Gallery Imperial College London, UK, (2018); First Light, Leeds Art University - Vernon St, Leeds, UK (2017).
Group exhibitions include (Upcoming) Orbital, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2026); (Upcoming) Cosmos: The Art of Observing Space, RWA Bristol, UK (2026); Earthbound, Derby Museum of Making, UK (2025); Look Photo Biennal: Beyond Sight, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK (2024); Across The Landscape with Jess Holdengarde, The Margate Gallery, Margate, UK, (2024); Future Now, QUAD Gallery, Derby, UK (2024); Spectrum Miami, Analog Film Photography Association, Art Basel Miami, Miami, USA (2023); Elemental Landscapes, Analog Film Photography Association, Crealde School of Art, Orlando, USA (2023); Affordable Art Fair, London, UK (2023); Collective Polyphony Festival, Melbourne, Australia (2023); Alternative Process and the Handmade Photograph, Atlanta, USA (2023); Glacial Movements & The Ghaib, Karachi, Pakistan (2023); Glacial Movements & The Ghaib, Lahore, Pakistan (2023); Glacial Movements & The Ghaib, Islamabad, Pakistan (2023); Glacial Movements & The Ghaib, Canterbury, UK (2023); Beyond Silver, Birmingham, UK (2023); Changing Currents, London, UK (2023); Seeing Stars, Leeds, UK (2022); Look Climate Lab, Liverpool, UK (2022); Under The Sun and The Moon, New York, USA (2022); In-Process, Glasgow, UK (2021); Open 2021, Margate, UK (2021); To The Edge of Time, Leuven, Belgium (2021); Ramsgate Festival of Sound, Ramsgate, UK (2021); A Sustainable Photography Plot, Folkestone, UK (2021); What On Earth, London, UK (2021); Earth Photo, Various Locations, UK (2021); Unstable/Sustainable, FORMAT International Photography Festival, Derby, UK (2021); Dark Skies, Stornoway, Scotland (2021); Trajectories III, London, UK (2020); Phases Commission, London, UK (2020); Datami (European Commission), Brussels, Belgium (2019); As Below, Margate, UK (2019); Belfast Photo Festival, Belfast, Northern Ireland (2019); Moonlight, Gothenburg, Sweden (2019); Tombolo, Lay of the Land, West Cork, Ireland (2019); Another Land: Experimental Visualisations of Place, London, UK (2019); Distance of Everything, Oslo, Norway (2019); Unseen, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2018); In Search of Darkness, Grizedale Forest, UK (2018); The Astrologer That Fell Into A Well, Osaka, Japan (2018); MOONS, Los Angeles, USA (2018); In Sonora, Madrid, Spain (2018); Eclipse Commission, Brecon Beacons, UK (2017); Blue Dot Festival, Macclesfield, UK (2017); Beneath The Salt, Bodø, Norway (2017); Shadow Merchants, Birmingham, UK (2017); Making A Photograph, London, UK (2017); Laboratory of Dark Matters, London, UK (2017); Altered Realities, London, UK (2017); Mozillafest, London, UK (2016); Shrinking Space, Swansea, UK (2016); Catching The Light, Canterbury, UK (2016); analogueNOW!, Berlin, Germany (2016); Aether, Berlin, Germany (2016); A Blue Show, London, UK (2015); Material Light, Belgrade, Serbia (2015); FORMAT International Photography Festival, Derby, UK (2015); FOYLE Commissions, London, UK (2015); The Story of Light Festival, Goa, India (2015); The Story of Light with JJ Hastings, 71A Gallery, Shoreditch, London, UK (2015); Contact Light, Birmingham, UK (2014); Material Light, London, UK (2013).
Highlights and collections :
Melanie King’s works can be found in the collections of Harvard Plate Stacks Library, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian; Canterbury Christ Church University
Melanie King received the following award : Eaton Fund Grant Award, 2025; a-n Artists’ Bursary, 2025; Curatorspace Bursary, 2024; Arts Council England, Developing Your Creative Practice Grant for "Acquaintance" , 2023; Arts Council England, Project Grant for "Precious Metals", 2021; Royal Academy of Engineering. Ingenious Public Engagement Grant, 2021. (With Leah Nani Alconcel, University of Birmingham); Rebecca Vassie Memorial Trust, 2021; Arts Council England Emergency Covid 19 Grant, 2020; South East Creatives Grant, 2020; Rebecca Vassie Memorial Trust, 2019; Grantham Art Prize, Imperial College London, 2019; Threshold Award, Metro Imaging, 2018; Royal College of Art, Conference Funding Award, July 2018; London College of Communication, Research Funding Award, March 2017