Life

80s

Born on 31 December in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Melsen grew up in a small town near the city. 

90s

“Ever since I was a little child I’ve been drawing. I don’t know when exactly but I remember, as a child, going to drawing classes and getting into drawing competitions and all that sort of things. I remember winning this children drawing competition: “I won free tickets for the whole family to see a Thunderbirds exhibition”. (interview SID magazine)  

“Ever since I was a child, I have gone to museums and read books about art. My father studied art history, so we often went to a museum, and he introduced me to many great painters. I remember going to a museum with my father when there was a special Picasso exhibition going on. It was an exhibition with works from his blue period. After seeing that exhibition, I knew I wanted to become an artist. I started reading more and more about Picasso; it was all really inspiring. I became interested in his life and work. At the same time, I started working with acrylic and oil paint, trying out different things”. (interview Critique Collective) 

00s

Melsen signed up for art school but canceled his registration. He started working as a Montessori teacher in Rotterdam. “I never attended art school. I have no specific way of working. I really just paint what I feel. Composition and painterly beauty is, of course, very important, but I would say emotion in art is what makes a painting unique” (interview Critique Collective)

Melsen plays in an alternative rock band with whom he records various lps. He also works on soundtracks for independent movies, such as Last Laugh and Niner. 

10s

“Besides Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon became a huge inspiration for my own work. I think what drew me to the works of Bacon is that it is very dramatic. The images he portrays, the colors that he uses, and the stories behind his works are very interesting. I love how Bacon portrays intense loneliness, despair, and inner turmoil.” (interview Critique Collective) 

Melsen opens his first solo exhibition at the P60, Amstelveen. Followed by several group- and solo exhibitions in Berlin, Dublin and Rotterdam. Melsen spends most of his time in Berlin and he creates his first video work which screened at the main stage of the famous Haus der Berlin Festspiele in Berlin. He also starts working with clothing branch BusinessPunks (Austria, Europe), a pioneer and leader in creating suits and jackets with unique art linings. 

For a Brazilian documentary Melsen was followed and interviewed by filmmaker Leticia Simoes in Berlin and Rotterdam.  In 2016 Melsen became the first prize winner of the Abstract Art contest held by International Gallery of the Arts (Canada).

In 2018 Melsen moves to Harlem. He starts working on more colorful paintings. In 2019 Melsen exhibits a collection of his paintings in Gallery Louarn in France.
Melsen releases three musical projects inspired by the Dada art movement “Dada” (2015), “Romanticism”(2017) and “Dada Files” (2019). Dada Files tells the story of the DADA art movement in sound. It’s an all instrumental album. The album opens with 1916: Closing The Cabaret, a song inspired by the closing of Cabaret Voltaire; the artistic nightclub in Zurich (Switzerland) founded by Hugo Ball.

20s

In 2020 Melsen published his first collection of poetry titled ‘Quack’. In this collection of 50 poems Tom Melsen revisits experiences from his early years up until his thirties.
Melsen’s painting Morvarc’h is being exhibited at Gallery Louarn (France) during the La ville d’Ys group exhibition.

In 2020 Melsen also started a podcast (in Dutch) about the life and work of Pablo Picasso.