Bio

Tara Merenda Nelson is an artist and curator working with performance, sculpture, sound, small gauge film and digital media. Her work playfully deconstructs images and objects to experiment with unorthodox combinations, creating hybrid forms that engage viewers in the act of perception. Her filmmaking practice includes poetic Super 8 diary films, cable access video comedies, 16mm experimentation, found footage collage, live sound and expanded cinema performance. Since 2020 she has been creating small sculptures called "Diorama Diaries" - a series of confessional tissue-box tableaus composed exclusively with objects found at Dollar Tree.
Her films, videos and installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art (NY and Miami), Mono No Aware (Brooklyn), The 8Fest (Canada), VideoEx (Switzerland) and the Sydney Underground Film Festival (AUS). She has taught digital media and film production courses at Montserrat, Ithaca College, Cornell University, University of Rochester and SUNY Brockport.
Tara is the Chief Curator at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY, where she oversees the care and preservation of over 10,000 16mm films and video titles. Tara is also the lead programmer for the VSW Salon series, and Managing Editor of the VSW Press. In 2018, she helped to launch the Film Art Book (FAB) imprint, focusing on artist books by film artists, including Rose Lowder, Ephraim Asili, Dani and Sheilah ReStack, Luther Price and Peggy Ahwesh.
Tara holds an MFA in Film/Video from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and currently resides in Rochester NY with her husband Gordon and dog Lucy. She can be reached at taramerendanelson@gmail.com.