About
Melanie Cove is a contemporary artist who works in drawing, filmmaking, installation, printmaking, sculpture, writing and performance.
She is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Twisted Trees Productions, a not-for-profit arts organisation where she works primarily as an educator with communities and private individuals.
Melanie cares for the legacy of the artist Ben Cove. She was recently the curator of Ben Cove in Space at SPACE, Ilford, London.
Education
Work
Experience
Sep 2025-26 MA Contemporary Art Practice, Royal College of Art - Leverhulme Arts Scholarship Award Winner.
2020-2021 ABC Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Skills, Stockport College.
2010-2011 P.G.C.E. Art and Design 11-18, Manchester Metropolitan University.
2003-2007 B.A. Hons Fine Art, Sheffield Hallam University.
2019- Twisted Trees Productions, co-founder and director.
2012-2018 Teacher of Art and Design, Parrs Wood High School.
2011 Identify Me Transition to Secondary Preparation, Romiley Primary School, Stockport.
2007-2011 Associate Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam University, Institute of Arts.
2008 Associate Lecturer, Leeds Metropolitan University, Faculty of Arts and Society.
2026 Unapologetic, group show, Bath Artists Studios, Bath.
Self Portrait Talking to the Artist Ben Cove, I Dream of Stairs, performance, Kettles Yard Late, Cambridge.
Surfacing co-curator and participating artist with Rua and Sam Wallace, group show at Hypha Studios HQ, London.
2025 Self Portrait Talking to the Artist Ben Cove: Haunt Me, performance, Royal College of Art, London.
2023 Ben Cove in Space, co-curator with Karen Davies and artist representative, SPACE Ilford, London.
2023 & 2022 Endomorphosos, Gallery Oldham, Cabasa Carnival Arts.
2022 Seeing Red, collaboration with Ami Horrocks, On Gathering, S1 Artspace group exhibition, Sheffield.
2021 Stockport Together Again, Stockport Memorial Art Gallery, Stockport.
2021 We Move Together, performative site specific work, New Mills Festival, High Peak.
2016 Lecture on the work of Ben Cove, John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
2016 Double Dutch, curator and artist representative, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth.
2009 Procession by Jeremy Deller, production team, Manchester International Festival, Manchester.
2007 Zoo Art Fair, Gallery liaison, partner gallery representative, London.
Last Night While You Were Sleeping: solo show, Lescar Project Space, Sheffield.
2006-2007 What We Did Instead: group exhibition; publication; symposium and education room.
2006 Drawn Together: Curator, End Gallery, Sheffield.
Members Will Endeavour: lead producer, group exhibition, Lodz Poland.
The Fed Baby Still Cries, solo show, Dressing Up Gallery, Manchester.
1999 Community Workshops for European Social Fund, Cherry Tree, Stockport.
1996-1998 Artist in Residence Cheadle and Marple Sixth form College, Manchester.
1995 Education for Schools, National Trust, Dunham Massey, Cheshire.
1992 Artist in Residence, Chevausset Primary School, Hulme, Manchester.
My practice is figurative and intuitive. I explore the body as metaphor: a peculiar subject/object. Culture, predominantly blind to its ableism, has cast out different bodies to the realm of deviance, either by way of horror or sentiment. Positioning my so called ‘normal’ body as the monster, the changeling or, the trickster, I aim to challenge ableist assumptions about navigating the world, how permanent the integrity of the body is, and recognise its inevitable disintegration. My preoccupation is predominantly but not exclusively the feminine form drawn from imagination and without knowing who will appear. This process of drawing has been necessary, comforting, disturbing, frightening, shameful, childish, and revelatory. Drawing underpins further work that teases out the spectacle of the unruly body through writing, performance and moving image.