Delaney Meller

Delaney Meller is a Baltimore-based multimedia artist. She creates work that explores the intersectionality of identity, politics, and the body; often drawing from personal experience to challenge the narratives we are taught to accept. She balances vulnerability with critique, using bold imagery and direct language to question norms, power, and perception. It’s deeply personal, yet always looking outward toward culture, conversation, and change. Working in any medium, she aims to make the unseen visible and the uncomfortable comforted.

“Answers” from Unwilling Participant

I am an unwilling participant in my body, in my life, and in systems that demand I perform my pain for understanding. Unwilling Participant examines what it means to live in a body that has been and is constantly being interrogated, investigated, and interpreted. It explores what it is to be intruded upon, imposed upon, and insisted upon for simply existing. The work is, in part, an act of revelation and an act of reconciliation, for without interrogation, investigation, and interpretation, I would never get the answers I deserve.

Across various mediums, I use contrast, repetition, and concealment to reveal pieces of myself on my own terms. Viewers are asked to engage with the work physically, implicating themselves in the invasiveness the work critiques. They become, in a way, unwilling participants. This body of work exists as both an exposé and cover-up, reflecting the ongoing struggle between the search for answers and the fight for autonomy.

“Answers” from Unwilling Participant, Thread on Canvas, Four 6” x 6” Panels, 2025