Data driven systems exploring biological growth, complexity, abstraction and networks.
Portrait of Melanie Olde. Photography by Pew Pew Studio and Craft + Design Canberra
Melanie Olde is Canberra-based interdisciplinary artist exploring biological systems through textiles and computational media. Her sculptures and installations include a range of media including weaving and creative coding. Her multimedia work is a performative exploration into an uncanny system, exploring life-like non-mechanical forms and behaviours. Olde's artworks have been shown nationally including Tuggeranong Arts Centre (Canberra) and Craft + Design Canberra, and internationally at Plexus Projects (New York City), Germany, Italy, France and Finland. She has been awarded prizes most recently for contemporary emerging art, Arts ACT grant, as well as international awards for complex weaving. She was weaver-in-residence at Sturt Craft Centre and participated in the jacquard weaving residency at Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio (Florence). Speaking engagements include the Textile Society of America and she was the keynote speaker at the New Zealand Festival of Fibres. Her interviews have been published by the Handweavers Guild of America and the Unstable Design Lab: Experimental Weaving Residency Talk Series. She has published papers for the Textile Society of America, Bridges Mathematics conference, and Complex Weavers. Multiple works appear in the publication Digital Jacquard Design, Jacquard magazine and the Complex Weavers' Journal. She regularly teaches at the Australian National University and selected workshops throughout Australasia. She is currently a remote artist in residence at Plexus Projects (NYC, USA) researching interpretations of growth patterns developing a project involving sculptures and drawings.
Resumé
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Canberra, ACT, Forest Growth
2025 Faye Skyring Gallery, CanberraT, EASS Graduate Award Exhibition
2024 M16 Gallery, Canberra, ACT, Life in the System
2007 Sturt Gallery, Mittagong, NSW, Distort
Group Exhibitions
2026 Tuggeranong Arts Centre, ACT, 60 Years CSW
2026 Craft + Design Canberra, ACT, Subscribed
2025 Craft + Design Canberra, ACT, Emerging Contemporaries (selected)
2024 ANU School of Art Gallery, ACT, Graduating Exhibition
2024 Plexus Projects, New York, USA, GUI/GOOEY (selected)
2024 Craft + Design Canberra, ACT, Regenerate/Regeneration
2024 Mark Arts, Wichita, USA, Innovations in Weaving, Complexity 2024 (juried)
2023 Craft + Design Canberra, ACT, Members Exhibition
2022 Lite-Haus Galerie, Berlin, Germany, Door to Door
2022 The Emporium Arts Center, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, Complexity 2022: Innovations in Weaving, (juried)
2022 Bridges Aalto 2022, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, Bridges Exhibition of Mathematical Art (juried)
2021 Craft ACT, Canberra, ACT Transformation
2021 Strathairn Gallery, Canberra, ACT, Cartography of Cloth (juried)
2021 No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Door to Door
2020 OliverMasson.Art, France (online), Pushing the Limits (juried)
2020 Craft ACT, Canberra, ACT, C/O
2020 Complex Weavers, USA (online), Complexity 2020 (juried)
2019/2020 Ex Chiesa di San Francesco, Art&Art, Como, Italy, Miniartextil, (juried)
Travelled: Paris, France; Milan, Italy; Sardinia, Italy
2019 Craft ACT, Canberra, ACT, Visionaries
2017 Belconnen Arts Centre, ACT, Sweetie
2014 Pod – Craft ACT, Braddon, ACT, Wrap Up
2013 Sturt Gallery, Mittagong, NSW, Threads of Influence
2009 Front Gallery, Lynham, ACT, Front Show
2008 Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida, USA, Convergence Small Expressions (Juried)
Awards
2024 EASS Tuggeranong Arts Centre Exhibition Award
2024 Craft + Design Canberra Emerging Contemporaries Exhibition Award
2024 EASS Canberra Spinners and Weavers Exhibition Award
2024 HGA Award for Outstanding Works of Fiber Art, Complexity 2024, USA
2022 ArtsACT Art Activities grant
2022 1st place, Complexity 2022, USA
2022 Complex Weavers Award
2020 1st place, Complexity2020, USA
2020 Complex Weavers Award
2004 Australia Council Skills and Development Grant
2002 The EASS NECG Acquisitive Award
2002 The EASS Canberra Spinners and Weavers Award
Residencies
2026 Plexus Projects Remote Residency
2012 Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio, Florence Italy
2004-12 Sturt Craft Centre, Mittagong, NSW
Speaking/Lectures/Talks
2024 Textile Society of America Symposium 2024 - Shifts and Strands: Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles, 12 - 17 November, 2024.
2023 Guest speaker for Cally Booker’s ‘Understanding Double Weave’, Cally Booker, November 2023.
2023 Keynote: What if your clothes were alive? New Zealand Festival of Fibres, Wellington, April 2023.
2023 Biomimicry & 3D weaving, New Zealand Festival of Fibres, Wellington, April 2023.
2023 3D weaving: Versatility in handweaving, New Zealand Festival of Fibres, Wellington, April 2023.
Press/media features
2023 “Field Notes: Melanie Olde,” Warp and Weft, 9 January, 2023.
2022 “Textiles & Tea Episode 52 Melanie Olde,” Handweavers Guild of America, 10 April, 2022.
2022 “Melanie Olde - Unstable Design Lab: Experimental Weaving Residency Talk Series,” 51:15, 7 September, 2022
Publications
2024 “Woven Life Systems”, by Melanie Olde, Textile Society of America Symposium 2024 - Shifts and Strands: Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles, 12 - 17 November, 2024.
2022 “Creating Auxetic Structures in Three-Dimensional Weaving,” by Melanie Olde, Proceedings of Bridges 2022: Mathematics, Art, Music, Architecture, Culture, August 2022, pp 421–424.
2021 “3D Interlock Innovations”, by Melanie Olde, Complex Weavers’ Journal, Complex Weavers, USA, October 2021, Complex Weavers, USA, 2021
2021 “Science and 3D Thinking in Weaving”, by Melanie Olde, Complex Weavers’ Journal, Issue 125, February 2021, Complex Weavers, USA, 2021.
2019 “The Maker's Marks: How to Learn from Japanese Weavers at the National Library”, by Melanie Olde, National Library of Australia, 2019
2014 “From Leaf Stomata to Digitally Woven Cloth”, by Julie Holyoke, Jacquard, Issue 72, 2014. pp 53-56
2013 “Digital Jacquard Design” by Julie Holyoke, London, UK, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2013. pp images: title page, dedication page, 107, 126, 128
Academic Teaching
2026 Australian National University, Canberra, Woven Worlds
2025 Australian National University, Canberra, Woven Worlds
2023 Australian National University, Canberra, Hands On: Emerging Material Language
2022 Australian National University, Canberra, Woven Worlds
Education
2024 Masters of Contemporary Art Practices in Art and Design, commendation, Australian National University
2002 Bachelor of Arts (Visual) Textiles Major, 1st class honours, CSA, NITA, Australian National University
1996 Certificate in Jacquard Weaving, Foundazione Arte Della Seta Lisio, Florence, Italy
1995-6 Certificate of Design Fundamentals, TAFE