Melissa Van Havere is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice centers on animals and questions the relationship between human and non-human life. Her work critiques systems such as industrial farming and exploitation, highlighting how animals are treated as objects rather than sentient beings. Through a light and accessible approach, she invites reflection, empathy, and more conscious ways of coexisting.  

It’s very important for Van Havere to represent the animals as beings with agency and emotions to awaken empathy in the viewer. With her naïve and colorful visual language, she wants to convey a feeling of hope and wonder. Van Havere presents a positive outlook on our future and its capacity to change. The way we view and treat animals has been taught to us, so it is also possible to ‘unlearn’ this behavior. Van Havere seeks to remind us of our inner child, the idealist that thought it self-evident to have empathy for all living creatures. 

At GlogauAIR, Van Havere has spent the last months researching animal rights and ethics. Guided by observation and encounters, she translated sketches and impressions into new works. Alongside this research, she has taken the time to experiment and refine her visual language and create her own world.