Tiziana La Melia
Tiziana La Melia is an artist and author born in Palermo (IT) and raised on an orchard-garden on Syilx/Okanagan territories. She works across many media such as painting, poetry, sculpture, collaboration, collage and drawing. In her writing and art practice, La Melia gleans the detritus of the everyday and transmutes it into material textures, and iterative shapes and symbols, which move through layers of diasporic time. She has exhibited at the Or Gallery, Vancouver; The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver; Romance, Pittsburgh; Pilot, Vienna (all 2025); Kamloops Art Gallery, Mécènes du sud, Montpellier (2021); Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops; Bad Water, Knoxville (all 2024); Grande Prairie; Lucas Hirsch, Dusseldorf; Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver (all 2019); Damien & the Love Guru, Brussels; Galerie Anne Baurrault, Paris (both 2019/17); Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre (2017); Oakville Galleries; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Vancouver Art Gallery (all 2016); Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles (2015) and Mercer Union, Toronto (2014). She holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and an MFA from the University of Guelph. In October 2022, Tiziana released Kletic Kink, a poetry album with musical compositions by Ellis Sam. Her latest book of poetry, titled I come from a long line of people who don’t use words, was released by Archive Books in June 2025.
Exhibitions
Soot (2017)
The Pigeon Looks for Death in the Space Between the Needle and the Haystack (2018)
ESP: Ecologies (2019)
17:4 (2021)
Writing & Press
Publications
The Eyelash and the Monochrome (2018)
Country Mouse, City Mouse – The Simple Life, 2020, oil on custom wood panel, 40.6 x 30.4cm
Country Mouse, City Mouse - Love Wisteria, 2020, oil, pastel and stained glass on wood panel, 76.2 x 60.9cm
Country Mouse, City Mouse – No Pointe de Capiton, 2020, oil and flashe on wood panel, 76.2 x 60.9cm
Garden Gossip, with Maryse Larivière, installation view, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre
Garden Gossip, with Maryse Larivière, installation view, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre
Garden Gossip, installation view, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre
Garden Gossip, installation view, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre
Sulking flower, 2017, gouache, watercolour, plaster, basin, 29.8 x 29.8 x 10.8cm
Grape, 2017, gouache, plaster, basin, 29.8 x 29.8 x 10.8cm
Cloudcuckooville, with Julian Hou, installation view, soon.tw (Montreal)
Mannequin Myths, 2018, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 76.2cm
Ants Milk Aphids and Parasite Schematic, 2018, clay & oil on canvas, 110 x 165cm
Aquarium Club, installation view, François Ghebaly (Los Angeles)
Innocent Oyster, 2015
watercolour, flashe & collage on water-jet cut aluminum, LED tape 71 x 73cm
Buff Reflections, 2015, water-jet cut aluminum, LED tape, 81.3 x 66cm
Aquarium Club, installation view, Vancouver Art Gallery
Buff Reflections, 2015
No.5 Orange, 2016, oil on linen, 195.6 x 139.7cm
Innocence at Home, installation view, CSA Space (Vancouver)
Innocence at Home, installation view, CSA Space (Vancouver)
Innocence at Home, installation view, CSA Space (Vancouver)
Innocence at Home, installation view, CSA Space (Vancouver)
Purple Poses, 2015/16, pigment, gouache, copper pipe, wood, brass, 190 x100cm
Purple Poses, 2015/16 (detail)
Purple Poses Weird Sisters, 2015/16, gouache, oil, sand, potato stamp, wood, brass, 190 x 110cm
Purple Poses Weird Sisters, 2015/16 (detail)
Holding on to the part, 2014, oil on canvas, 101.6 x 78.6cm
Wand, 2020, nightlight, ribbon, found object, 10 x 10 x 6cm
Emo Cloud Tracking Stress, 2020, nightlight, steel wool, calendula, wire, 10 x 10 x 6cm