Mel Chan is an artist based in the Netherlands. Working across painting, participatory performance, storytelling, installation, and video, her practice explores how we imagine endings, futures, and the possibility of living otherwise. She is interested in the cultural and political stories that make violence, rupture, and uncertainty appear inevitable.
Born and raised in colonial Hong Kong before the 1997 handover, Chan grew up with a strong sense that something was coming to an end, while the future remained beyond her control. This experience continues to shape her thinking about “the end of the world” — not as a singular event, but as a story we tell ourselves about what cannot be changed.
Through her work, Chan questions this sense of inevitability. Her paintings transform images of violence, protest, and destruction into spaces for contemplation, while her participatory works invite audiences to reflect, care, witness, and imagine together.
Rather than offering a vision of a better future, her practice asks what becomes possible when we refuse to believe that the future has already been decided.
Chan holds an MFA with Distinction in Master of Artistic Research from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and a BA with a double major in Philosophy and Comparative Literature from The University of Hong Kong. Her work has been presented at, among others, Boijmans Depot, Kunstinstituut Melly, Casco Art Institute, Loods 6, V2_, 1646, Brutus, Willem Twee Kunstruimte, Platform POST, Pictura, as well as at various art spaces and festivals in the Netherlands.