​MELLONY TAPER
​📍Bristol, UK

Taxonomist of lost and found objects. Rewriting the histories of discarded things.
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“I collect and curate lost and found objects: intervening in the status of discarded possessions to make work about the heritability of intangible things, like experience, expectation, limitation, opportunity.

Developing my own taxonomy of objects gives me a visual language with which to create allusions that reference familial roles and hierarchical familial structures, repeating patterns and histories.​

My work often involves an intentional confusion between what is real and what is not; the status of the work as both witness and evidence - and myself as chronicler and archivist - are perpetually in flux. Which version of our history do we remember? And which do we believe?”

Photography: Jim Wileman

​​BIOGRAPHY
Mellony Taper is a British artist whose cross-disciplinary practice centres around the collection, assemblage and curation of found objects. ​Traversing a line between trad and new methods of making, her work blends photography, sculpture, drawing, digital and installation.

Taper’s work has been exhibited widely across the UK and is regularly selected for prize exhibitions.  Her work is included in ProCreate Project’s living archive of work by artist-mothers and formed part of the 2023 series of ProCreate Public Activations across London.  IN 2023 she was invited to create work for the exhibition “Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City” curated by Turner Prize-winner and cultural activist Lubaina Himid CBE, during its tenure at the Royal West of England Academy.  The exhibition - all women artists - included works by invited Bristol-based artists alongside works from the Arts Council Collection.  
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Taper was awarded first prize in the 2025 Thelma Hulbert Open Art Prize for her work ‘Trousseau”. Her 2026 solo show at Thelma Hulbert runs from 16th May - 27th June 2026. ​
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​​​Exhibiting history & CV

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