Melanie Berardicelli (born March 14th, 1995) is a Master of Fine Arts, Certificate of Fine Arts, and Continuing Education Professor at the New York Academy of Art. As a professor, Melanie teaches drawing and painting, portrait and figurative sculpture, and structural anatomy. An educator in the fine arts since 2014, Melanie has taught drawing, painting, sculpture, and art history classes at the Ivy League School in Smithtown and USDAN Center for the Creative and Performing Arts.
Melanie received a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Painting at the New York Academy of Art in 2021, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing at SUNY New Paltz in 2017. Upon her graduation in 2021, she assisted the late Audrey Flack in her New York and East Hampton studios. As a studio assistant, she helped Audrey paint and sculpt works for her Post-Pop Baroque Series, which debuted at Hollis Taggart Gallery in March 2024.
Melanie's personal work currently focuses on the history of the Roman Martyr Catacomb Saints. After
reading Paul Koudounaris’ Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs,
she was captivated with the Roman Martyr Catacomb Saints of the German-speaking countries. She
admired the tireless dedication of the nuns who clothed and bejeweled the skeletal remains of Christian
martyrs from 100 AD with their own rings and gems. Combining her love of anatomy and sculpture with
the ornate, she hand-tailors, embroiders, and beads costumes to adorn her resin-cast skeletal écorchés to
recreate twenty-four-inch Roman Martyr Catacomb Saints. Through both painting and sewing on canvas,
she re-imagines what these saints looked like during their lifetimes, giving them back their identities and
re-christening them after the heroic people that she has come to know in her life.
Melanie’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout New York State, including The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, The Woodstock Artists Association Museum, Sotheby’s, Equity Gallery, Era Contemporary Gallery, Upstream Gallery, and The Huntington Arts Council, and has been published in both national and international magazines, including Women United Art Magazine, Arts to Hearts Magazine, Visionary Arts Collective, Bold Journey Magazine, and CanvasRebel Magazine. Most recently, Melanie was selected as one of the first recipients of the Long Island Grants for the Arts, Artist Fellowship to create a series of portrait sculptures. Additionally, Melanie was selected to be the Spring 2026 Artist in Residence at West Nottingham Academy.
Melanie is an experienced forensic artist. Under the tutelage of Joe Mullins, Melanie has reconstructed the faces of four missing persons from cold cases in Brooklyn, New York, and Arizona. Her facial approximations have been featured in The Daily News, NBC 4, and FOX 5. Melanie is also children’s book illustrator. Her work for Augie Goes to the Library- a 48-page commemoration to the New Paltz community and the titular Border Collie- was published in 2016.