Melissa Casanova

Melissa Casanova is a Dominican-American abstract painter based in Richmond, Virginia. Her work explores memory, identity, place, and the things we carry with us, using layered color, gestural marks, botanical forms, and architectural references.

Drawing from personal history, travel, and her Dominican and Spanish heritage, Casanova creates paintings that move between abstraction and recognition. Doors, flowers, landscapes, fragments of architecture, and saturated color appear and disappear through layers, creating work that feels both familiar and slightly out of reach.

Her recent work considers transition, inheritance, and the ways memory reshapes a place long after we have left it.

Visual Arts Center of Richmond — Continuing studies in painting and ceramics, 2019–2020. Coursework included Abstract Painting with Joanna Tyka; Oil painting with David Tanner focused on studying the techniques and creative practices of influential artists; and ceramics with Tracy Shell.

Milan Art Institute — The Mastery Program, 2023–2024. Continued studies through ongoing painting workshops and advanced coursework, 2024–present, focused on contemporary painting, abstraction, mixed media, technique, composition, and developing an individual artistic voice.

ARIE (Art Really Is Everywhere) — Comprehensive continuing education in abstract painting through ARIE’s multidisciplinary course library, studying the techniques and creative processes of numerous contemporary abstract artists. Coursework included abstraction, color, composition, texture, mixed media, artistic voice, creative process, and development of cohesive bodies of work.

Emily Jeffords — Making Art Work, 2025. Professional development focused on building and sustaining a professional fine-art practice.

Jodie King — Continuing studies and mentorship in abstract painting, 2026–present, with a focus on artistic voice, experimentation, composition, and developing a cohes...

Solo Exhibitions

2026 — Color Becomes, Main Street Station Gallery, Richmond, VA — Collaborative mother-daughter exhibition with ceramic artist Virginia Casanova

2026 — Becoming, Coalescence, Richmond, VA

2025 — Becoming, Black Iris Social Club, Richmond, VA

2025 — Awakening, Studio 120, Richmond, VA

2025 — The Art Brigade, Health Brigade, Richmond, VA

2025 — Artist of the Month, Virginia Eye Institute, Richmond, VA

Group Exhibitions & Installations

2025 — Deep Rest Winter Solstice, Studio 120, Richmond, VA

2026 — Fall of Freedom, Antennae Gallery, Richmond, VA

2026 — East Coast Design Expo, Currant House installation, Richmond, VA

2026 — Art for the Journey Gala, Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Richmond, VA

2026 — Across the Universe, Studio 120, Richmond, VA

2026 — Field of Curiosity, The Branch Museum of Design, Richmond, VA

2026 — March All Media Exhibition, Crossroads Art Center, Richmond, VA — Second Place, 2D

2026 — Richmond Symphony League Designer Show House, Richmond, VA — Featured artist, Marble Moon Interiors installation

2026 — Renewal, Raw Milk Mercantile, Dumfries, Scotland