Bod Mellor (born 1970; previously named Dawn Mellor) is a British painter, noted for unconventional, stylised portraits of well-known figures.

Early life and education

Mellor was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. They attended

Central St. Martin's Central Saint Martins is a public university, public tertiary education, tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and pos ...

for their undergraduate studies, and received their Masters from the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

in London. As a teenager, Mellor was fascinated with

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

, and drew numerous portraits of the singer. A book of these drawings, entitled ''Michael Jackson and Other Men'', was published by Studio Voltaire in 2012.

Career and work

Mellor is known for making "obstreperously satiric portraits of celebrities". Their paintings, which tend to reference iconic images of their famous subjects, often feature graphic violence, verbal profanity and explicit sexuality. In a profile of Mellor in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', writer Jessica Lack draws a contrast between the artist and her contemporary,

Elizabeth Peyton Elizabeth Joy Peyton (born 1965) is an American contemporary artist working primarily in painting, drawing, and printmaking. Best known for figures from her own life and those beyond it, including close friends, historical personae, and icons of ...

, who is also known for portraying the famous: " ellor'spaintings do not speak of the mysticism and romance of stardom. Her celebrities are not quixotic figures, but the personification of our basest emotions. They are grotesque parodies: sallow, deformed and cruel. Over the years, she has painted

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...

as a bald-headed,

Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...

-ish psycho,

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

as a pill-vomiting virgin, and Julianne Moore as a bloodshot zombie with teeth to rival

Shane MacGowan Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan (born 25 December 1957) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Celtic punk band the Pogues. He was also a member of the Nipple Erectors and Shane MacGo ...

's." A subject of particular interest to Mellor is

Dorothy Dorothy may refer to: *Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name. Arts and entertainment Characters *Dorothy Gale, protagonist of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum * Ace (''Doctor Who'') or Dorothy, a character playe ...

, the protagonist of The Wizard of Oz, portrayed by Judy Garland, whom they have painted repeatedly in their 2008 exhibition at

Team Gallery Team Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, with an additional project space in Venice, Los Angeles, California. It was founded by José Freire and Lisa Ruyter in 1996. Team has represented such ...

, ''A Curse on your Walls''. Other regular subjects include Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie,

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, MC (; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa ( sq, Nënë Tereza), was an Indian-Albanian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded the Missionaries of Charity. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu () was bo ...

Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Uni ...

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...

, and

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

. Mellor has held numerous dedicated exhibitions since their debut solo at Victoria Miro Gallery in London in 1999. In 2008, they held a solo exhibition at the

Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst The Migros Museum of Contemporary Art (German: Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst) is a museum for contemporary art in Zürich, Switzerland. The museum was founded in 1996 . It is the successor to the Halle für Internationale neue Kunst, which ...

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. In 2019 they published a book, ''Sirens'', described as a novel and also containing the artist's set of "Sirens" paintings which portrayed British actresses playing police officers in film or television, previously exhibited at the

in New York. In 2020 Mellor was commissioned to produce an outdoor mural of

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling musici ...

by the Studio Voltaire, which was completed in September 2020 as part of Brent Biennial. The same year, in a Guardian article they discuss this project, their non binary identity, and addressed the 2019 allegations from Twitter users, tabloid media and Art Review that they were masquerading as trans and non binary.

Personal life

The artist is non-binary and uses they and them pronouns. They changed their name by deed poll to Bod Mellor in June 2021. The Tate now lists Mellor's works under "Bod Mellor".

Selected publications

*''Sirens'' (2019, Montez Press: )

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mellor, Bod 1970 births Living people 20th-century British painters 21st-century British painters Alumni of Central Saint Martins Alumni of the Royal College of Art Artists from Manchester English contemporary artists Non-binary artists English LGBT people British LGBT artists 21st-century LGBT people