Melissa Wolf

(b. Kansas City, Kansas 1999)

Kansas City Art Institute, class of 2024.

Wolf is a working artist living in Kansas City, MO. Wolf is a Mexican-American woman whose creative process is influenced by her heritage and identity. Her sculptures challenge functionality, exploring what it means to transform objects beyond their original purpose. By creating nonfunctional relics or objects, she evokes a sense of longing and contemplation, prompting viewers to reflect on their own experiences of childhood and adulthood. She specializes in mixed media sculpture, often working with concrete as both a primary material and a surface treatment to prompt viewers to question what that looks like in their day to day life. She encases objects like stuffed animals in concrete, allowing them to solidify into new, redefined forms. Beyond cement, she incorporates clay, textiles, wood, and found materials, embracing an experimental approach to materiality. As a direct response to her Latino upbringing, through playfulness and self-reflection, she explores themes of memory and transformation, with childhood objects and toys serving as central motifs. Her work captures fleeting moments, preserving them as tangible, lasting artifacts