EDUCATION
2011: Cranbrook Academy of Art, MFA Photography, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2007: Virginia Commonwealth University, BFA Photography, Richmond, VA
RESIDENCIES
2024: Foundation House, Greenwich, CT
2022: MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
2020: Banff Centre for Arts, AB, Canada
2019: Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
2018: Lacawac, Lake Ariel, PA
2017: MacDowell, Peterborough, NH
SOLO | TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024: Love Canal; Evidence of Injury, Detroit Contemporary, Detroit, MI (Solo)
2024: Nuclear Winter, Plexus Projects Vitrine Series, Virtual (Solo)
2024: Swan Song, River House Arts + Contemporary Art Toledo, Toledo, OH (Halima Afi Cassells + Shanna Merola)
2023: Swan Song, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI (Halima Afi Cassells + Shanna Merola)
2023: Swan Song, Room Project, Detroit, MI (Halima Afi Cassells + Shanna Merola)
2023: Solvent, The James and Grace Lee Boggs Center Revolution Gallery, Detroit, MI (Halima Afi Cassells + Shanna Merola)
2023: Bellwether, Eastern Michigan University Gallery, Ypsilanti, MI (Clara DeGalan + Shanna Merola)
2023: We All Live Downwind, Summer Exhibition Series, Buckham Gallery, Flint, MI (Solo)
2022: We All Live Downwind in conjunction with 1.5 ° Celsius, Michigan State University Museum, Lansing, MI (Solo)
2021: We All Live Downwind, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, Gimpo-si, South Korea (Solo)
2021: We All Live Downwind, ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus, OH (Solo)
2020: We All Live Downwind, University of Toledo + River House Arts, Toledo, OH (Solo)
2019: We All Live Downwind, The Photography Gallery at Riley Hall, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN (Solo)
2018: Oil + Water, Walter E. Terhune Gallery, Owens College, Perrysburg, OH (Kate Levy + Shanna Merola)
2018: We All Live Downwind, Joachim Schumacher Gallery, Westover School, Middlebury, CT (Solo)
2017: Another Country, University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, Ann Arbor, MI (Solo)
2016: Shock and Neglect, The Gallery at Marygrove College, Detroit, MI (Jeana Klein + Shanna Merola)
2015: Piece it Together; Art and Protest, University of Toledo CVA Gallery, Toledo, OH (Sheida Soleimani + Shanna Merola)
2008: Tell Me Where You’re Marching, Tell Me Where You’re Bound, Valentine History Center, Richmond, VA (Solo)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024: Observed: Hypervisibility + Reclamation, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, Haverford, PA
2024: Sacred Garden Secret Service, The Scarab Club, Detroit, MI
2023: Bulk Salon, Bulk Space, Detroit, MI
2023: Build or Burnout, Spread Art, Detroit, MI
2023: Art of Bas Blue Summer Exhibition, Detroit, MI
2023: Actual Size Exhibition, Detroit Contemporary, Detroit, MI
2023: Community Power, Swords Into Plowshares Gallery, Detroit, MI
2023: Breaking Ground, Annmarie Art Center and Smithsonian Affiliate, Solomons, MD
2023: Legacies of Nuclear Testing: A Peoples Perspective, Branigan Center, Las Cruces, NM
2022: If We Never Get Better, TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image, Philadelphia, PA
2022: Watershed, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
2022: Art as Resistance, Swords into Plowshares Gallery, Detroit, MI
2022: Dollars and Sense, Rosalux Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2021: With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2021: Four Degrees: Eco-Anxiety and Climate Change, Strange Fire Collective + Humble Arts Foundation
2021: Daisy Chain: To Be Continued, University of Michigan Institute for Humanities, Ann Arbor, MI
2021: Reality Shift, Mid-America College Art Association, Grove City, PA
2020: Darkest Before Dawn: Art in a Time of Uncertainty, Ethan Cohen Gallery, Beacon, NY
2020: Fact vs Fiction, Gallery 263, Boston, MA
2020: Environmental Crisis: Art and Science Exhibition, Gerald Moore Gallery, Mottingham, London
2019: Futures | Intersections, International Photography Symposium, Nida, Lithuania
2019: Beyond Our Means, Muted Horn Gallery, Cleveland, OH
2019: Oh Maker, Heaven Gallery, Chicago IL
2019: Chromaphilia, Artspace, New Haven, CT
2019: Lie, Cheat, Steal: Contemporary Art and Ethics, Lyon College's Kresge Gallery, Batesville, AR
2019: 2.3.4 Dimensional Photographies, Ohio University Seigfred Art Gallery, Athens, OH
2018: ICONIC Black Panther, Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago, IL
2018: Unexpected, PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2018: Alteration, Millepiani Gallery, Rome, Italy
2018: Call and Response: Art as Resistance, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA
2018: CMCA Biennial Exhibition, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
2018: New Acquisitions Show, Second Story Gallery, New Haven, CT
2018: This is Not Normal, Riopelle Studio Artist Collective, Detroit, MI
2017: Artist Statement #2, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, Gimpo-si, Korea
2017: Radical Resistance to Xenophobia, Grady Alexis Gallery, New York, NY
2017: Call and Response: Art as Resistance, Month of Photography Denver, Denver, CO
2017: Biennial 29, South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, IN
2017: Group Show 52 Alternative Facts: Humble Arts Foundation, New York, NY
2017: Round in Circles, N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI
2016: Coagulants, AC Institute, New York, NY
2016: Re: Formation, Gallery Project, Toledo, OH | Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI
2016: What We're Made Of: The CCS Faculty Exhibition, Valade Gallery, Detroit, MI
2016: #photo, Hatch Gallery, Hamtramck, MI
2015: Essay'd III, 9338campau, Hamtramck, MI
2015: This House is a (____), Cass Corridor Commons, Detroit, MI
COLLABORATIVE + PUBLIC PROJECTS
2021: Reunioning: A Restorying Agency Project with Halima Afi Cassells and Planet Detroit, Detroit, MI
2017: Midwest Environmental Justice Network Media Campaigns, Chicago, IL + Minneapolis, MN
2016: Detroit Resists is Occupying the U.S. Pavilion, Detroit Resists, Venice, Italy
2015: Don’t Ignore the Messenger, Detroit Homeland Security, Porous Borders Festival, Detroit, MI
AWARDS | FELLOWSHIPS | GRANTS
2023: Kresge Arts Foundation Gilda Award in Visual Art, Detroit, MI
2023: Puffin Foundation Project Grant, Teaneck, NJ
2022: Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Bearsville, NY
2022: Generator Arts Accelerator Grant, Milwaukee, WI
2022: Bulk Space Mini Grant, Detroit, MI
2021: Planet Detroit Restorying Agency Project Grant, Detroit, MI
2020: Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Award, AB, Canada (Banff)
2019: Puffin Foundation Project Grant, Teaneck, NJ
2019: Society for Photographic Education, Imagemaker Award, Cleaveland, OH
2016: Midwest Environmental Justice Network Media Grant, Detroit, MI
2010: Richmond Defenders Fighting Fund and Community Awards, Richmond, VA
2009: Cranbrook Academy of Art Merit Scholarship, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2008: Golden Hammer Award, Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods, Richmond, VA
2007: Virginia Museum of Fine Art Undergraduate Fellowship Photography, Richmond, VA
2006: Virginia Museum of Fine Art Undergraduate Fellowship Sculpture, Richmond, VA
LECTURES | SYMPOSIUMS
2024: Visiting Artist Talk, Women's and Gender Studies Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2024: Love Canal; Evidence of Injury Exhibition Artist Talk, Detroit Contemporary, Detroit, MI
2023: Swan Song Closing Ceremony; Our Craft of Care Series, Room Project, Detroit, MI
2023: 52nd Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Photography Gallery Talk, Scarab Club, Detroit, MI
2023: Solvent Artist Talk and Community Conversation, Boggs Center Gallery of Revolution, Detroit, MI
2022: Whose Water Panel Discussion + Film Screening, MOCAD, Detroit, MI
2022: If We Never Get Better Panel Discussion, TILT, Philadelphia, PA
2021: Third Spaces of the Anthropocene, AICAD International Symposium, Toronto, ON
2021: Representation + Resistance Artist Lecture Series, Brandies University, Boston, MA
2020: Artist Lecture for Concepts in Art, Studio, and Theory, University of Toledo, Toledo OH
2020: Atomic Legacies, Nuclear Futures: Art + Anthropocene, Cranbrook Photography, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2019: Beyond Space: Unbounded Theory and Practice, The Carr Center, Detroit, MI
2019: Imaging Intersectional Futures, Detroit Art Week at Habibi House, Detroit, MI
2019: Photography for Social Justice, SPE West at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
2019: Oil and Water; Photography in the Age of Disaster Economies, SPE National Conference, Cleveland, OH
2019: Can I Get a Witness?, Point Park University Communications Department, Pittsburgh, PA
2018: A Portrait of the Post-Human, Cranbrook Art Museum deSalle Auditorium, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2018: Without Boundaries; Sculpture X Social Practice Symposium, Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, OH
2018: We All Live Downwind Exhibition Artist Lecture, Westover School, Middlebury, CT
2017: Archives in Real Time, University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, Ann Arbor, MI
2017: Can I Get A Witness?, Open Engagement National Conference 2017 – Justice, Chicago, IL
2017: Water Rights & Art As Resistance, Justice Studies Association National Conference, WSU, Detroit, MI
2017: Expect Resistance, University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, Ann Arbor, MI
2017: Bearing Witness: Art as Activism, Stanford Arts Institute & Detroit Arts Immersion, Detroit, MI
2017: The Art of Detroit’s Resistance, 19th Annual Allied Media Conference, Detroit, MI
2017: Water Is Life: Standing Rock Panel, Wayne State University Law School, Detroit, MI
2017: Can I Get A Witness?, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA
2016: Occupy Discourse; Detroit Homeland Security, The College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
2016: Reclaim the Commons, Take Back the Tap!, Marygrove College, Detroit, MI
2016: Testify; Stay Woke Lecture Series, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2016: Radical Lawyers & Legal Workers In Radical Movements, Case Western University, Cleveland, OH
2015: Brick by Brick, Wall by Wall, CoCA, University of Toledo Center for the Visual Arts, Toledo, OH
2014: Bearing Witness: Art as Activism, Fall Lecture Series, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2013: Black Day in July, Department of Art and Art History, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
2008: Former Sites of the Richmond Slave Trade, Valentine History Center, Richmond, VA
COLLECTIONS | LIBRARIES
2023: The Love Building, Detroit, MI
2023: Branigan Cultural Center, Las Cruces, NM
2022: Barbara Deming Collections, Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s Schlesinger Library, Cambridge, MA
2020: Collar Works Flat File 2020, Troy, NY
2019: Honigman-Cranbrook Works on Loan, Detroit, MI
2019: Kala Art Institute Print Collection, Berkeley, CA
2019: Artspace Flatfile Collection, New Haven, CT
2018: Joachim Schumacher Gallery Collection, Westover School, Middlebury, CT
2017: Eugene Coleman Savidge Library, MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
2015: Toledo Museum of Art Library, Toledo, OH
2008: The Richmond Valentine History Center Museum Archives, Richmond, VA
PRESS | PUBLICATIONS | REVIEWS
2024: The Reconfiguration of Shattered Remains, Detroit Contemporary Exhibition Review, Sarah Rose Sharp
2024: Postcollapse: Art Since 1989 Publication, MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture, Zürich, Switzerland
2023: The Brooklyn Rail, Halima Afi Cassells and Shanna Merola: Swan Song, Steve Panton
2023: MetroTimes, Two Detroit Artists Manifesting Liberation Through Collage, Randiah Camille Green
2022: Rose Bramble Books; Dollars and Sense Zine, curated by Priscilla Briggs
2022: Land Escape Contemporary Art Review; Biennial Edition
2022: Parapraxis, Issue 1, the Family Problem
2021: Rejoinder Journal: Climate in Crisis, Institute for Research on Women, Rutgers University
2021: A People’s Atlas of Nuclear Colorado, curated by Sarah Kanouse + Shiloh Krupar
2021: With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932, Exhibition Publication
2021: Hyperallergic, Institute for the Humanities Gallery Documents Artists’ Reemergence From Pandemic
2021: Barbed Magazine, Issue #11, Photography as a Medium
2020: Urbanautica Institute, Extinction: The World Without Us
2020: A People’s Atlas of Detroit, Wayne State University Press
2020: Performance Research Journal, Volume 25 Issue 2, On Dark Ecologies
2020: Mapping Meaning Journal, Life After the Anthropocene: Envisioning the Futures of the World
2020: Six Feet of Distance, Essay’d Pandemic Edition #4, Shanna Merola on the Shock Doctrine
2020: SciArt Magazine Volume 43, Culture of Contamination
2019: Photo Emphasis, Project Spotlight: We All Live Downwind
2019: Edge of Humanity Magazine, Depicting Environmental Issues
2018: Dear Dave Magazine, Shanna Merola in Conversation with Steven Frailey
2018: The Creative Independent. Kate Levy + Shanna Merola in Conversation w Daniel Sharp
2018: LensCulture, Artist Project Shanna Merola
2017: CICA Press, Artist Statement #2
2017: Drain Magazine, Artist Project Shanna Merola
2017: Detroit Art Review, Group Exhibition @ N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art
2016: Nat.Brut, Art and Protest: Piece it Together
2016: Barbed Magazine Issue 4, Detroit Bread
2016: Interview Magazine, The New Activists
2016: Hyperallergic, After Flint Water Crisis, Police Murders, and More..
2015: Essay'd: Short Essays on Detroit Artists, 26 Shanna Merola
2015: Critical Moment: Detroit by Detroiters, Featured Artist Shanna Merola
2014: Art 21 Magazine, The Feast of Detroit
2014: infinite mile a journal of art and culture(s) in Detroit, Black Day in July
2010: Black Workers for Justice, Struggle Heats Up to Reclaim Richmond’s African Burial Ground
2008: RVA News, You Are Parking Your Car in a Lot That Was Built Over a Historic Cemetery
2008: Church Hill News, ACORN Announces 2008 Golden Hammer Special Award Winners
2008: New Views of History, The Richmond Times Dispatch
ARTICLES AUTHORED
2020: Cassells, Levy, Merola, Externalize, Extract, Co-opt, Repeat, Detroit Research: On Sound, Volume3
2016: infinite mile, #freethewater; Conversation with Anonio Cosme | Artwork by William Lucka
2016: infinite mile, The Systems Not Broken, It Was Built This Way
2016: Guild Notes, Flint Inmates Forced to Drink Contaminated Water
2015: Guild Notes, NLG Legal Observers Monitor Toledo Nazi Counter Protest
TEACHING APPOINTMENTS
2022: Lecturer, Department of Art Practice, University of California, Berkeley, CA
2019 – 2020: Interim Artist In Residence, Head of Photography, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2013 – 2018: Part-Time Faculty, College for Creative Studies, Foundation Department, Detroit, MI
2012 – 2013: Part-Time Faculty, Wayne State University, Photography Department, Detroit, MI
2014: Instructor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Summer Arts Intensive, Richmond, VA
2014: Instructor, Cranbrook Institute of Science, Youthview Detroit, Bloomfield Hills, MI
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE | COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
2020: Legal Observer Coordinator, National Lawyers Guild Bay Area Chapter, San Fransisco, CA
2015 – 2020: Know Your Rights Committee, National Lawyers Guild Detroit Chapter, Detroit, MI
2013 – 2020: Civil Resistance Committee, National Lawyers Guild Detroit Chapter, Detroit, MI
2013 – 2019: Legal Observer Coordinator, National Lawyers Guild Detroit Chapter, Detroit, MI
2016 – 2019: Detroit Anti-Repression Committee, Detroit, MI
2011 – 2014: The Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, Detroit, MI
2011 – 2014: Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership, Detroit, MI
2009 – 2010: Food and Medicine: Worker Center of Eastern Maine, Bangor, ME
2007 – 2008: Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality, Richmond, VA
POPULAR EDUCATION WORKSHOPS + TRAININGS
(LEGAL OBSERVER)
Notre Dame University Law School, Notre Dame, IN
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Brown University, Providence, RI
University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Marygrove College Department of Visual Arts, Detroit, MI
Wayne State University Law School, Detroit, MI
University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, MI
Michigan State University College of Law, Lansing, MI
University of Detroit Mercy Law School, Detroit, MI
Flint Rising, St. Michael’s Church, Flint, MI
Collective Against White Supremacy, Ann Arbor, MI
Attica Film Screening + Legal Observer Training, 1515 Broadway, Detroit, MI
2016 RNC Jail Support + Legal Observer Training, Case Western Reserve Law School, Cleveland, Ohio
2016 RNC Jail Support + Legal Observer Training, The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio
2016 RNC Jail Support + Legal Observer Training, Wayne State University Law School, Detroit, MI
(KNOW YOUR RIGHTS)
Know Your Rights for Photography: Defending The 1st Amendment in Public Space, Darkroom Detroit, MI
Know Your Rights: If an Agent Knocks, Lansing Public Library, Lansing, MI
Know Your 1stAmendment Rights to Protest, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
Know Your 1stAmendment Rights to Protest, Michigan State University College of Law, Lansing, MI
Know Your 1stAmendment Rights to Protest, Wayne State University Department of Sociology, Detroit, MI
Know Your 1stAmendment Rights to Protest, Michigan People’s Defense Network, Detroit, MI
Know Your 1stAmendment Rights to Protest, Michigan Youth Summit, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Know Your Rights: Protests, Direct Action + Civil Disobedience, Detroit Coalition Against Tar Sands, Detroit, MI
Know Your Rights: Protests, Direct Action + Civil Disobedience, MICATS Action Camp, MI
Know Your Rights: Protests, Direct Action + Civil Disobedience, Occupy ICE, Detroit, MI
Know Your Rights: Protests, Direct Action + Civil Disobedience, Poor People’s Campaign, Detroit, MI
Know Your Rights: Protests, Direct Action + Civil Disobedience, Michigan United, Detroit, MI
Know Your Rights for Immigration + Legal Observer Training, Rapid Response Detroit, Detroit, MI
Know Your Rights for Protests + Legal Observer Training with the ACLU of Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI