Sarah Van Melick

Sarah Van Melick is a graduate of the Institut Supérieur des Arts de Toulouse, the École Supérieure d’Art de Tourcoing, and the University of Lille. She is currently an artist-in-residence at La Condition Publique and is supported by La Malterie arts visuels.

Her practice explores cultural hybridity and migration, often in connection with Morocco. She is particularly interested in individual narratives and their relationship to official History. How can we understand “living together” in a society shaped by globalization? What about diasporas, colonization, and the treatment of so-called “minor” archives? What role can the artist play in re-examining History and opening up to the stories of others? Through her work, Sarah Van Melick interrogates postcolonial History through the lens of archival practices, migratory narratives, and diasporic experiences. Drawing on research grounded in reality, she gives voice to plants, objects, and archives from different cultures, elevating them through visual, poetic, and reflective works.

Her work has notably been exhibited at the Frac Occitanie-Montpellier in 2022, as part of the Biennale Objet Textile in Roubaix in 2020 and 2024, at Galerie Totem in Amiens in 2025, and in various exhibitions in Burgundy and Belgium. Her first solo exhibitions—Double fond, Mémoires en dormance, and Et les barouds s’égrenèrent—were held at the art center Lasecu in 2023, at L’H du Siège in 2025, and at Galerie Robespierre in 2026. In 2023, she was awarded an individual creation grant from the DRAC Hauts-de-France. In 2024, she received the ADAGP research grant as well as a preparatory phase grant from the Hauts-de-France region. She was also the recipient of the Dacos Prize in Liège in 2024.