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Melissa Wagner Lawler Headshot

Melissa Wagner Lawler

  • Teaching Faculty II, Printmaking & Book Arts
  • Teaching Faculty II, First Year Program
  • First Year Program & Retention Coordinator, Art & Design

Education

  • MFA, Visual Studies, Minneapolis College of Art & Design, 2007
  • BFA, Printmaking, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, 2002

Biography

Melissa Wagner-Lawler is an artist and Teaching Faculty member in the Printmaking & Book Arts department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in Printmaking and her Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. For over fifteen years, Wagner-Lawler’s work has focused on artist books and exploring the complexities of this format. Her artist books incorporate letterpress and other printmaking techniques, such as screen printing and relief printing. In her work, she investigates and modifies folded and woven book structures, often including intricate enclosures that contain relevant supporting objects.

Exploring perceptions of landscape and place, her work captures moments just before change and destruction. It highlights the idea of quiet unpredictability right before looming chaos. The landscapes, though subtle and layered, challenge our sense of place and security. Elements of tension, information breakdown, and fragile circumstances come together in prints and artists' books. The bound book format enables her to work sequentially and allows viewers to add or change the meaning through the viewing process. She hand-prints, editions, and binds all the book works herself.

She was a 2025-2026 artist in residence with ARTServancy, a local arts organization that partners area artists with land trusts in the Greater Milwaukee area. Through her residency, she created an artist book entitled 16,650 Days, along with a suite of prints inspired by the Biehl Nature Preserve.

Wagner-Lawler has created 17 editioned book works which have been widely exhibited and are included in over 40 notable collections, such as the Library of Congress Rare Book Collection, Stanford University, Bainbridge Museum of Art, Yale University, and the Smithsonian American Art & Portraiture Library. All of her book work is available to view in person at UWM's Special Collections Library and can be viewed at redthreadletterpress.com.

Links

Recent & Selected Works

Pop-up book of wave forms on the right and a description inside a yellow triangle on the left, in blues and greens.
Low Tide, artist book
Pop-up book of wave forms on the right and a description inside a yellow triangle on the left, in lighter blues and greens.
Low Tide, artist book
Russet orange interior of teal book cover, the front of the book inside is made of a gray paper or fabric, reading "In Solitude"
In Solitude, artist book
Book opened laying in front of its cover, with fold out pages of many lines and elaborate shapes resembling hydrographic charts
In Solitude, artist book
Book opened with fold out pages of many lines and elaborate shapes resembling hydrographic charts, in green, yellow, blue and grey
In Solitude, artist book
Low Tide, artist book
In Solitude, artist book

Artistic Exhibitions & Artwork

  • Wagner-Lawler, Melissa. ARTServancy, January-February 2025, Gallery 224, Port Washington, WI.
  • Wagner-Lawler, Melissa. Cimmaron National Works on Paper 2025, August 19 - December 19, 2025, Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Stillwater, OK.
  • Wagner-Lawler, Melissa. MCBA New Editions, Fall 2025, Minnesota Center for the Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN.
  • Wagner-Lawler, Melissa. Ink, Press, Repeat: National Juried Printmaking and Book Art Exhibition, September 8 - December 4, 2025, William Patterson University Galleries, Wayne, NJ.
  • Wagner-Lawler, Melissa. Small Things Become Big Things, January 17 - March 1, 2025, Minneapolis College of Art & Design Concourse Gallery, Minneapolis, MN.
  • Wagner-Lawler, Melissa. The Book as Art v. 12: Rock, Paper, Scissors!, September 5 - October 28, 2024, Decatur Library, Decatur, GA.
  • Wagner-Lawler, Melissa. TMA Contemporary 2024, May 18 - September 8, 2024, Trout Museum of Art, Appleton, WI.
  • Wagner-Lawler, Melissa. The Sun, The Moon, The Stars, March 18 - June 15, 2024, University of Vermont Special Collections, Burlington, VT.