Monica DeSalvo’s work transforms the experience of navigating dual realities into layered, abstract compositions that explore fragmentation, dichotomy of power, and connection. Rooted in her journey alongside her late father through his dementia, the works hold the tension between presence and absence, clarity and dissolution. Drawing from her design background and her father’s engineering archives, DeSalvo incorporates photography, monotypes created with a Gelli plate, and documents tied to his education and career into deeply personal yet universally resonant mixed-media collages. Her compositions are often segmented or constructed as diptychs, reflecting multiple perspectives. Through layering, she reveals and obscures elements, allowing multiple visual narratives to
emerge simultaneously.

Monica DeSalvo is a Boston-based mixed-media artist and designer. She received her BFA in Visual Design from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and has developed an interdisciplinary practice rooted in collage, printmaking, and archival material. Her work has been selected for juried and invitational exhibitions and featured in publications including Artscope, Curatory, Juniper Rag, and Suboart magazines. In 2024, she participated in the Kolaj Institute residency in Sanquhar, Scotland. Her 2023 solo exhibition, A Bus Tour in the Woods: Visual Duets with Her Father, was presented at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts.