MEL TAING is a Cambodian-American photographer, community artist, and educator based in Boston. ☽
Specializing in creative portraiture, exhibition documentation and community engagement, Mel seeks to celebrate the vibrance, radiance and joy of the intersecting communities in her life.
In addition to her artistic practice, Mel is an exhibition documentation photographer. She works with several arts institutions in the greater Boston area such as the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, MassArt Art Museum, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Rose Art Museum and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.
Beyond the camera, she is deeply interested in increasing cultural equity within the arts and culture sector of Boston. Mel collaborates with organizations such as the Harvard Ed Portal, Arts Connect International, Pao Arts Center, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway utilizing her artistic practice as a tool for bringing awareness and change towards intersectional equality. Since 2023, Mel is a lead engagement artist for the Chinatown Cultural Plan and a Co-Facilitator for the Artist Pipeline Program at the Harvard Ed Portal.
Mel is a proud alumni of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and holds a BFA in Film/Video. She is Vice-Chair of the Alumni Leadership Council, a volunteer cohort of alumni that work to connect alum to each other, to the college, and to the broader MassArt community.
Select Clients:
Institute of Contemporary Art Boston | MIT List Visual Arts Center | deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum | Public Art Fund | Rose Art Museum | Rose Kennedy Greenway | Pao Arts Center | Asian Community Development Corporation | Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center | MassArt Art Museum
Selected Group Exhibitions:
Embodied Identities, Pao Arts Center, October 2021, Boston MA.
They Watch You Thrive, Pao Arts Center, September 2021, Boston MA.
New Narratives: Reclaiming Asian Identity Through Story, Unbound Visual Arts, July 2020, Virtual Exhibition.
CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND, Merrimack Repertory Theater, November 2019, Lowell, MA.
BLACK, BROWN, OTHER, Self Love Social Club at The Living Gallery, April 2019. Brooklyn, NY.
BLACK, BROWN, OTHER, Egoless Creative at We Ain’t Shit Show, March 2019. Brooklyn, NY.
TENSE, Fort Point Arts Community Gallery, 2018-2019. Boston, MA.
All School Show, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 2016. Boston, MA.
Full Moon Daydreams, MassArt Film Society, 2016. Boston, MA.
Honors and Awards:
Capacity-Building Grantee, MassMOCA’s Assets for Artists, 2021.
Merit Scholarship. Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 2012.
Film/Video Departmental Honors. Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 2016.
Publications and Media:
“It Gets in Your Soul: Taiko and the Parks with Karen Young” Olmsted Now, 2022.
“Ode to Durian (We Are Ineffable)”, The Stilt House Magazine, Cambodian American Literary Arts Association, 2020.
“Ode to Durian (We Are Ineffable)”, Asian American Resource Workshop Story Project, 2020.
An Artist Finds Inspiration in an Inherited Archive of African American Culture, Hyperallegic, January 2021.
Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech” Is Now on View at ICA Boston, Hypebeast, August 19, 2021.
Prejudice is a Disease - Social Experiment Unmasks Silent Plague of Hate, Art in the Time of COVID-19, Artscope Magazine, May/June 2020.
See Vivian Suter’s New Show at ICA Boston, Inspired by Her Home in the Guatemalan Rainforest, ArtNet, August 2019.
Aquí y Allá: Juntos A La Mesa, edibleBOSTON, August 2019.
A New Art Project Grapples With The Alienation That Comes With Being Othered, Nylon Magazine, March 2019.
Went There: Tense at the Fort Point Arts Community Gallery for Boston Hassle, December 2018.
The closest thing to skin for Boston Globe, December 2018.
Boston Voyager, December 2018.
This Boston Artists Hosts A Very Intimate Dinner Party for Total Strangers for WBUR Artery, September 2018.
Palm with Palberta and Horse Jumper of Love for Allston Pudding, July 2017.
Phor Magazine. Volume 1, 2016.
Mr. Lif and Akrobatik for Bandcamp Daily, July 2017.
Lina Tullgren for Bandcamp Daily, July 2016.
Lina Tullgren for The Fader Magazine, June 2016.
Artist Talks / Panels:
Guest Lecturer, MFA Program, Brandeis University, 2022.
Guest Lecturer, MFA Program, Boston University, 2022.
Guest Lecturer, Studio for Interrelated Media, MassArt, October 2021.
Portrait & Pajamas at University Hall Gallery with Chanel Thervil, October 2021.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum -The Larger Conversation: Delicate Blend, May 13, 2021.
New Narratives: Reclaiming Asian Identity Through Story - Ode to Durian, July 24, 2020.
Montserrat College of Art - A Talk Between Jennifer Nguyen and Mel Taing, May 27, 2020.
Self Love Social Club - Prejudice is a Disease with Artist Momoko Schafer, May 22, 2020.
Portraits & Pajamas with Artist Chanel Thervil - Quarantine Self-Care Portrait Series, May 8, 2020.