bio

Alyssa Mcclelland is an artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received her Bachelors of Fine Art in painting with a minor in Art History from Michigan State University in 2024, and has been a lifelong painter. Her work ranges from large scale, public, performative, unconventional work to humbly sized, traditionally painted or sculpted, innocuous portrayals. It intends to engage the common viewer and affirm their importance to high art; that is, it intends to democratize high art. She has been featured in various group shows, and her last solo show was at Michigan State University.

statement

My work aims to affirm and appreciate negative space, forgotten, non-visible things, songs that cannot be heard. It asks you to open your mind to what you don’t acknowledge and deconstruct what divorces art from labor from nature. A pot is only useful for its void. My paintings are portraits of the fullness one can appreciate in something fully empty. Driven by a love for snapping and painting from photographs, I build a peaceful, thoughtful, at times humorous visual language. Each painting is a portrait of its photographic counterpart. I believe that perspective is a fascinating and powerful thing; in my work, I challenge perspective with geometric composition and difficult to recognize subject matter. With visual disorientation, I hope to gain your careful consideration of my motivations. If this is done, my work is successful.

cv

Education

2024 BFA in Painting, minor in Art history, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

2024 Music, Art, and Culture Study Abroad in Bregenz, Michigan State University,

Bregenz, Austria

Solo shows

2024 Obtuse, Austere Kresge Art Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing

Group shows

2025 Dwellings, Artlink Contemporary Gallery, Fort Wayne IN

2024 Undergraduate Exhibition, Scene Metrospace, East Lansing MI

2023 Undergraduate Exhibition, Scene Metrospace, East Lansing MI

2019 Teen Art Cooperative Party, Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh PA