Melissa Chimera
Melissa Chimera (b. 1972) is a Honolulu native of Lebanese and Filipino ancestry. She studied natural resources management at the University of Hawai‘i, a world epicenter for plant and animal extinction and worked for two decades as a conservationist. Chimera’s mixed media paintings and installations are research-based investigations into species extinction, globalization and human migration. Her work has been widely exhibited throughout the U.S., Asia and the Middle East, published in anthologies and reviewed by the Washington Post and Hyperallergic. She is the recipient of the Catherine E. B. Cox Award and finalist for the Lange-Taylor Prize. Her work resides in the collections of the Arab American National Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, and the Hawai'i State Foundation of Culture and the Arts.