Photo Credit: Lisa Adams
UPCOMING:
Material Witness
Curated by Lesley Heller
Opening Reception: December 5th, 6-8pm
On View December 5th, 2025 - January 25th, 2026
McKenzie Fine Art, 55 Orchard St, NYC
Artists: Ben Godward, Alexandra Kohl, James Leece, Christina Massey, Dana Melamed, Cyrilla Mozenter, Ellie Murphy, James Nelson, Helen O’Leary, Jim Osman, Ursula Morley Price, Cordy Ryman, Pete Schulte, Drew Shiflett, John Torreano
Artist Statement:
Experiencing an unseasonably warm winter day or admiring a striking sunset can be both beautiful and unsettling—my work explores this tension, where nature’s allure is intertwined with underlying risk, intrigue, and unease. I examine the space between intellectual understanding and emotional response—how we process the conflicting realities of climate change, environmental preservation, and personal identity.
Raised in Northern California with the Leave No Trace philosophy, sustainability is central to my practice. I transform repurposed materials—particularly aluminum craft beer cans—into botanical abstractions that appear organic despite their consumer origins. By using a product traditionally marketed toward men, my work also questions gendered notions of craft, identity, and consumption.
The cans are cut, painted, and woven into forms that evoke textiles, blurring boundaries between painting and sculpture, fine art and craft, the industrial and the handmade. Other materials, including copper, steel, textiles, and blown glass, expand this conversation through surreal, plant-like forms that suggest transformation, adaptation, and resilience.
The resulting works feel at once familiar and strange. By transforming everyday waste into intricate, organic forms, I highlight the tension between consumption and sustainability, mass production and the handmade. These sculptures invite viewers to reconsider value, gender, and environmental responsibility—and to reflect on the rhythms of beauty and unease that define our contemporary landscape.
Artist Bio:
Christina Massey is an award-winning artist recognized for her innovative use of repurposed materials, particularly aluminum cans, in creating vibrant botanical abstractions. Her multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, painting, and installation, exploring themes of environmental sustainability, consumer waste, and material transformation.
Massey has received numerous accolades, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and multiple Brooklyn Arts Fund Grants. She has exhibited widely, with recent solo projects at SPRING/BREAK Art Show in NYC, UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, and Montefiore Einstein’s Gallery for ARTFul Medicine in the Bronx. She has held residencies at Art Cake in Brooklyn and Governors Island, among others. Additional awards include the FST StudioProject Fund Grant, a SIP Fellowship at the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and a Puffin Foundation Grant. Her work is held in public and private collections, including the Janet Turner Museum, Art Bank Collection in Washington, D.C., Bank of America Collection in Miami, and UBS.
Massey studied painting and theater set design at California State University, Chico. In addition to her artistic practice, she is an independent curator and the founder of WoArt, dedicated to promoting contemporary female-identifying artists.
Massey is currently a resident artist at PS122 in the East Village, where she is developing an expanded body of sculptural work for 2026 exhibitions.
Resume
SUMMARY:
Christina Massey is a Brooklyn-based visual artist whose practice spans painting, sculpture, and installation, centered on sustainability and material transformation. Working with repurposed consumer waste and craft-based techniques, she explores the tension between beauty and unease in nature—where resilience and fragility coexist. Massey was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2023, and her work has been exhibited at Elza Kayal Gallery, UrbanGlass, the Flinn Gallery, the Noyes Art Museum | Art Garage. Her artwork is also included in the U.S. Department of State’s Art Bank Collection.
SELECT RECENT AWARDS:
2025 PS122 Studio Residency
2023 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant Recipient
2023 Art Cake, Artist-in-Residence, Brooklyn, NY
2023 KUNSTRAUM Residency, Brooklyn, NY
2022 Brooklyn Arts Fund Award
2022 4Heads Governors Island Summer Artists Residency, New York
2019 FST StudioProject Award
2019 Brooklyn Arts Fund Award
2017 EFA Robert Blackburn, SIP Fellowship, New York, NY
2017 Urban Glass Merit Scholarship, Brooklyn, NY
2017 The Puffin Foundation, Grant Recipient
2016 Celeste Prize 2016 Finalist in Sculpture, London, England
2016 Soaring Gardens Artists Retreat
2016 Fiscal Sponsorship Program with NYFA
SELECT RECENT EXHIBITIONS:
2025 McKenzie Fine Art, Material Witness, (group) curated by Lesley Heller, NYC
2025 Art Cake, From One to Another, (solo), Brooklyn
2025 BravinLee Projects, Stay Frosty, (group) NYC
2025 Elza Kayal Gallery, Piece by Piece, (group) curated by Jaynie Crimmins, NYC
2025 Flinn Gallery, Biophilia, (group) curated by Ellen Hawley, Greenwich, CT
2025 Norte Maar / CounterPointe1,Tipping Pointe, interdisciplinary collaboration, Brooklyn, NY
2024 UrbanGlass, Changing the Course of Time, (solo), Brooklyn, NY
2024 MOCA-LI, Eclectic Abstraction, (group) curated by John Cino, Patchogue, NY
COLLECTIONS:
Art Bank, US Department of State Building, Washington D.C.
Lee Equity, New York, NY
Credit Suisse, New York, NY
Bank of America, Miami NY
Janet Turner Museum, Chico CA
SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2025 Art Cake, From One to Another, Brooklyn, NY
2025 The Adler Gallery, The Undulating Unknown, Port Washington, NY
2023 SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Uncharted Growth, curated by Etty Yaniv, NY, NY
2023 The Gallery of ARTFul Medicine, Montefiore Einstein, Regenerative Nature,
curated by Jodi Moise, Bronx, NY
2023 Court Tree Collective, Christina Massey, 750 7th Ave Lobby installation, curated by Stephen Lipuma, New York, NY
2022 UrbanGlass, Changing the Course of Time, Brooklyn, NY
2020 Equity Gallery, Christina Massey: Invasive Species, New York, NY (online exclusive)
2019 One Five One, Crafty Collusion, Lobby Installation supported by the Durst Foundation, NY
2018 The Adler Gallery /Port Washington Library, Opposites Attract, Port Washington, NY
2017 Noyes Art Museum, Art Garage, Mingled Mediums, Atlantic City, NJ
2017 Sarah Doyle Gallery, Then & Now, Providence, RI
2014 World of Threads, Fiber Art Festival, Solo Shows, Toronto, Canada
2014 Dacia Gallery, Salva Veritate, New York, NY
2012 Corridor Gallery, RUSH Arts Gallery, Business & Pleasure, Brooklyn, NY
2-3 PERSON EXHIBITS:
2022 Hudson Guild Gallery II, FIRE & WATER, curated by Carol Salmanson, New York, NY
2019 Blackbird Gallery, Transmutations, curated by Jess Berghorn , New York, NY
2017 Welancora Gallery / NU Hotel, Taking Shape, curated by Ivy Joes, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Roxbury Art Center, Interwoven, curated by Jenny Rosenzweig, Roxbury, NY
2015 Chazan Gallery, Traverse/Texture, curated by Elena Lledo, Providence, RI
2014 Riverviews Artspace, Business & Bones, curated by Brooke Marcy, Lynchburg, VA
2014 Brooklyn Arts Cluster, Repurposed & Reimagined, Brooklyn, NY
2012 Ormond Memorial Art Museum, Women of the Uncommon Cloth, Ormond Beach, FL
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITS:
2025 McKenzie Fine Art, Material Witness, curated by Lesley Heller, New York, NY
BravinLee Programs, Stay Frosty, curated by Karin Bravin, New York, NY
Elza Kayal Gallery, Piece by Piece, curated by Jaynie Crimmins, New York, NY
Flinn Gallery, Biophilia, curated by Ellen Hawley, Greenwich, CT
Norte Maar | CounterPointe12, Tipping Pointe, collaboration with Juliette Rafael, Brooklyn, NY
2024 MOCA-LI, Eclectic Abstraction, curated by John Cino, Patchogue, NY
Galerie Lucida, Botanica, curated by Michael Paris Mazzio, Red Bank, NJ
M. David & Co, All Tomorrow’s Parties, curated by Michael David, Brooklyn, NY
Westbeth, There is a crack in everything, curated by Valérie Hallier, New York, NY
MAPSpace, Ephemeral Bloom, curated by Ellen Hawsley, Port Cester, NY
2023 Westbeth Gallery, Unnatural Processes, curated by Valérie Halier, New York, NY
2022 Court Tree Collective, The Tactiles, curated by Stephen Lipuma, Brooklyn, NY
2022 Old Stone House Gallery, Brooklyn Utopias, curated by Katherine Gressel, Brooklyn, NY
2021 Collar Works, Out of Office, curated by Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Troy, NY
2020 Equity Gallery, Il Paradiso: Imagining the Eternal, curated by Peter Gynd, Margaret Krug, Peter and Jimmy Wright, New York, NY
Monica King Contemporary, Spring into Action, New York, NY (online exclusive)
2019 LIU Humanities Gallery, Fauna & Mirrors, curated by Etty Yaniv, Brooklyn, NY
The Clemente, TRILL MATRIX, curated by Elizabeth Riley, New York, NY
2018 Trestle Gallery, Small Works 2018, curated by Sharon Louden, Brooklyn, NY
Cluster Gallery, Works on Paper, curated by Muriel Guepin, Brooklyn, NY
2017 DeCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Abstract!, Lincoln, MA
John Doe Gallery, NOTHING TWICE, curated by Etty Yaniv, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Bailey Contemporary Arts, RE-Purposed, curated by Lisa Rockford, Pompano Beach, FL
NARS Foundation, Threaded Archetypes, curated by Molly Flanagan, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Smack Mellon, RESPOND, organized by Esteban de Valle, Molly Dilworth, Oasa DuVerney, Ira Eduardonvna, Steffani Jemison and Dread Scott, Brooklyn, NY
2014 Florence Quarter Gallery, Painting Now, curated by Stuart Gibson, Tuscan, AZ
2013 North Light Gallery, Altered Reality, curated by Lisandra Gomez, Brooklyn, NY
Crossing Art Gallery, Going Green II, curated by Maria Boobis, Queens, NY
City Without Walls, Knot Your Average Knit, curated by Lovina Purple, Newark, NJ
2011 Like the Spice Gallery, Layer Current, Brooklyn, NY
Maloney Art Gallery, Visual Phrasing, Morristown, NJ
2010 MoCADA, The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks, curated by Dexter Wimberley, Brooklyn, NY
EDUCATION:
2002 BFA, California State University, Chico, Chico, CA
1999 Study Abroad, London University, London, England
PRESS:
Salvage Podcast, Conversation with Christina Massey
Art Spiel - Biophilia, Nature Hacked, Art Rewired by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
Art Spiel - Eccentric Abstraction at MOCA-LI by Etty Yaniv
Shoutout LA - Meet Christina Massey | Artist by Chris Miller
Canvas Rebel - The magical moment when you knew you would be a creative or artist by Kristi Shah
I Like Your Work, Spring 2024 Catalog curated by Sally Morgan
New Visionary Magazine - Issue 9, Christina Massey in conversation with Victoria J. Fry
Suboart Magazine - Finding Beauty in Sustainability with Christina Massey by Nina Seidel
Gallery & Studio - The Art of Recycling for the Planet by Julia Szabo
EpicenterNYC - Featured Artist, Chirstina Massey by Nitin Mukul
Art Spiel - Artists on Coping by Etty Yaniv
Not Real Art - Christina Massey Weaves an Otherworldly Ecological Wall Sculptures
I Like Your Work Podcast - Creating, Curating and Collaborating with Christina Massey
Art Fuse - Trill Matrix at the Clemente by Johnathan Goodman
Art Spiel - In Between Zones, by Etty Yaniv
LECTURES / WORKSHOPS:
2026 - Guest Artist Teacher, Saint Ann’s School
2025 - Guest Artist Speaker for the Circular Design for Climate Mobilization
2024 - Guest Artist for SVA In Practice MFA Program
2024 - Guest Artist Mentor for UnCool Artists Residency
2023 - Guest speaker for SVA, Summer Residency Program
2023 - Guest Artist Mentor for UnCool Artists Residency
2023 - Artist Mentor for KUNSTRAUM
2023 - Guest Curator for the “i like your work podcast” online exhibition and catalog
2023 - Online Professional Development Workshop for the Women’s Caucus for Art DC
2022 - Zero Waste Exchange panel discussion
2022 - Guest speaker at California State University Chico
2022 - Guest speaker for PAFA studio drawing course
2022 - Guest speaker for the C2C Art Collective
2022 - Artist Affiliate for Paddy Johnson’s Netvvrk
2021 - Guest speaker at PAFA
2021 - Guest curator for the All SHE Makes Magazine
2021 - Artist Liaison for Curina
2020 - Professional Development for Ely Center Contemporary Art
2020 - Guest curator for All She Makes
2020 - Artists Who AND…, weekly interview series on Clubhouse
2020 - Professional Development for Pelham Art Center
