Money Like You Man (2024)
72cm x 102cm
Through Money Like You Man, Melissa critiques the ways in which classism persists in the art world, where access to materials and platforms often reflects social privilege rather than artistic merit.
Created as a direct response to the trend of large-scale canvases with bold, black text created by artists often operating from positions of financial and social privilege, this work challenges the performative nature of such artworks.
Money Like You Man’s message is a pointed and self-aware commentary on the classist dynamics at play in the contemporary art world. This work explores the inequality in a system that rewards the financial means to produce expensive artworks while marginalising those who lack such resources. It’s a statement about the intersection of class, materialism, and the commercialisation of art, inviting reflection on the real cost of creativity in an elitist art world.