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Artist Isabella Mellado sits in front of pieces of their artwork. Her head is propped up on her hand and she looks at the camera with a neutral expression.

Isabella Mellado

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Isabella Mellado is a painter and educator native to San Juan, Puerto Rico. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018 and her Masters in Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023. Mellado is best known for her magical realist paintings on latinidad, queer identity and tarot. She works in a wide range of media including painting, photography, costume design, digital collage and sculpture.

Mellado’s paintings are to the artist as sigils are to the witch, and are a visual exploration of self actualization through relationships—coven, platonic, romantic, familial & self. Through painting, she underlines queer trauma and Catholic shame by making reference to religious symbolism found in renaissance and medieval art. By relating gargoyles, demons and angels as seen in Catholic art to the contemporary queer coded figure in their paintings, Mellado questions moralizing tales as seen in the European art canon. Mellado’s work centralizes queer narrative, womanhood and latinidad as she has lived it, framing it with symbolism taken from mythology, folklore, tarot, astrology and Puerto Rican culture.

Featured Artwork

"This is an oil painting based on the design of the Rider-Waite tarot card 'The Fool'" - Isabella Mellado. A person wearing a vejigante mask holds hibiscus flowers in each hand. They wear a yellow shirt with the progress pride flag on the right side of the shirt and a Taino symbol on the left. They stand ankle deep in thick grass with their back to a tree that has "The Fool" tarot card nailed to it. Mountains are sprawling in the background against a bright blue sky.
Isabella Mellado. The Fool, 2024. Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Surrealist painting based off of the "Eight of Swords" tarot card. Features dolls, swords, and a female figure in a blue dress.
Isabella Mellado. Eight of Swords, 2024. Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Painting based on the "the Magician" tarot card. Features a female figure in the woods wearing a mask and a patterned dress.
Isabella Mellado. The Magician, 2024. Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.