Melissa Negron Ulto has created a unique career, creating award winning video art, immersive, large scale interactive installations, and fine art paintings. She is also a Teaching Artist for JCArts/Arthouse, teaching content production.

Melissa Negron Ulto has worked with luxury brand clients like Versace, Diesel, Rag+Bone, TUMI, and others, designing their digital signage and creating new content. As a consultant, she works with Fortune 500 companies and key industry players in the digital signage field, including BrightSign and Zignage. She did several public art projection pieces in Jersey City. and Manhattan during the pandemic. She has been included in several NFT art events and taught a workshop on the topic at NYU. She has done two video installations for Diner En Blanc in Jersey City. Melissa currently has a gallery space in the Lackawanna Building, where she has placed a longterm AR installation, along with hosting regular JCAST and other art events. She is repeatedly hired to do projection mapping for music video clients, as well as various digital signage installations for retail brands. 

She has participated in numerous award-winning documentaries as part of her profession. Melissa has worked on films about everything from the Middle East Peace Struggle to Women in Hip-Hop. The film “Mandatory Service”, wherein Melissa served as the cinematographer, won Best Short Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008. Her work may be seen in the highly acclaimed and frequently screened film series All The Ladies Say, which was directed by Ana Rokafella Garcia and debuted in 2006. Editing All The Ladies Say 2 and preparing for All The Ladies Say 3’s summertime filming in Paris—the first time Breaking will be an Olympic sport—are the team’s current endeavors.

Melissa worked with some of the key players from Blue Man Group, QOTN and STOMP! on workshopping a new project, as the video designer for the video backdrops and live performance video pieces. Melissa Ulto’s video art piece, unMade Movie, became part of the permanent video art archive at the Getty Research Institute in 2017, as part of the Joanie4Jackie collection. The piece was part of 2002’s “Who Stole My Chainletter” edition.

Melissa holds the position of Digital Signage Content Manager at Lincoln Center, managing and creating infoscape content for the entire campus. Melissa is currently involved in projects for brands using AR/VR content in marketing campaigns online and in public spaces. Her role is creative and technical lead, to concept and develop the content, keeping in mind the target demographics and the various devices for content delivery. She also works in education, with Hudson County, on STEM/STEAM programs. 

Melissa has a long history with art and activism, and is part of the Guerrilla Girls (as Maya Deren, a performance/activism training group), which included a European tour – live streaming the performances and running workshops for women in Slovenia, Hungary and Greece how to do activist street theater and poster design. She created graphics and on-air art for Occupy Wall Street, was an on-location live streamer, and built a green screen stage, as key member of their streaming team. She continues to lend her support and skills to various movements and non-profits. 

Specialties: video design/installation, digital signage technologies – dev/code/install/maintain, live streaming installations, digital broadcasting, filmmaking, AR/VR, brand & identity marketing, 3D and digital art techniques, video editing and animation techniques, installation prototyping/layouts, fine art techniques

Experience

JCAST 2023 – Gallery Show
October 2023 – Jersey City – Brand Experience Lab

Melissa participated as a gallery space for her show, “Cold, Smooth & Tasty”, as well as having curator Atim Oton present “Afropunk: Afrofuturism – A Digital Exhibition”.

NJCU Latinx Art Show
September 13 – November 18 2023 – Jersey City – NJCU Visual Arts Building Gallery

Artistas de Latinoamérica Sueños y Posibilidades/
Latin American Artists: Dreams and Possibilities
Melissa has two pieces in the show, representing Puerto Rico’s independence movement history – Lolita Lebron and Ramón Emeterio Betances. 

Public Art – Diner En Blanc
Summer 2022/2023 – Jersey City – ART HOUSE

Public Art Projection Mapping – for ticketed international arts event. Projection mapping on public monuments for display during the events. 

Salsa Stories – AR ART
Summer 2022/2023 – NYC – Bianka Cypriano

AR Art installation for each Salsa Stories event in Manhattan and the Bronx. Using Membit as the AR platform, Melissa created layered AR pieces from archival photos and other illustrative elements. 

Women In Graffiti Installation – Curator
August 2023 – NY – Lincoln Center

Melissa curated a selection of women graffiti artists to show their work, as a collection, on the 50 foot LED wall at David Geffen Hall for the 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop month. Works were selected from Toofly, Shiro1, Kay Love, and Miss CHELOVE. Digital video presentation for a week during major Hip-Hop events on campus. 

All Eyes On Us Show
August 2023 – Jersey City – Brand Experience Lab

Melissa participated in a group show hosted by Move The Needle, curated by @or1el. The show included salon discussions moderated by @or1el and @123dudapenteado – with artists joining in to describe their creative approach and vision.

Sazon 2023
June 2023 – East Rutherford – American Dream

Melissa curated and participated in a group show hosted by Move The Needle and Sazon, at the Dream Live venue, in the American Dream Mall. The event included her NFT pieces, fine art pieces, AR art and installation called Sala De Brillo. The installation was an entire room filled with mirror mylar balloons, also hanging from the ceiling, with a large chrome leather couch, and blue lighting. 

Crossing The Field: Artists Breaking Boundaries
November 2022 – Jersey City – Beacon’s Murdoch Hall

Melissa participated in a group show curated by Atim Annette Oton. The event included several of her fine art pieces. 

JCAST 2022
October 2022 – Jersey City – Brand Experience Lab

Melissa curated and participated in a group show hosted by Move The Needle, at Brand Experience Lab. The event included her NFT pieces, fine art pieces, and an AR art installation. 

Sazon 2022
June 2022 – Jersey City – Brand Experience Lab

Melissa curated and participated in a group show hosted by Move The Needle and Sazon, at Brand Experience Lab. The event included her NFT pieces, fine art pieces, and an AR art installation. She was also on a panel about women in Web3. 

Teaching Artist
Fall 2021/Winter & Spring 2022 – Jersey City – JC ARTS/ART HOUSE

Melissa Ulto teaches students how to produce online video and multimedia content, based around themes of social justice. She works with JCARTS/ARTHOUSE in their educational efforts.

Ars Electronica’s Electronic Arts Festival
Fall 2021 – projection mapping installation & showing NFTs – NYC

Melissa Ulto participated in part of the collective XR Ensemble, co-creating installations that utilize addressable LEDs, projection mapping, video art and NFTs.

We Are Everywhere
Fall 2021 – Jersey City Public Art installation

Melissa Ulto participated in a show focusing on LGBTQ+ artists, where each part of the flag was represented by a color. Melissa was pink, for sexuality, and intersected with her bisexuality and the bi flag colors. 

LIBRE ENFIN
July 2021 – France/Guadeloupe/Virtual 

Melissa Ulto participated in a show curated by NFT ART exhibition by Alain Afflelou Guadeloupe. Her work can be seen here. The show included a Digital: Fair in a 3D hall, Personal exhibitions, NFTs, Smartify, Conversations (Live FB + Face-to-face), presented by Pool Art Fair.

PRIDE IN THE PARK
June 2021 – Jersey City 

Melissa Ulto, as part of the West Side Merry Makers, helped organize the first Pride in the Park event in Lincoln Park. Her involvement included the design of the event’s step and repeat, and running an interactive, touch-less photo booth. This Pride event was historic and groundbreaking, for being the first official Pride event ever in Lincoln Park, including raising the Pride flag.

ITP Camp 2021
June 2021 – New York/Virtual 

Melissa Ulto participated in the 2021 edition of NYU’s ITP Camp, and taught a session on NFTs. Previous years included teaching sessions on live video performance, live video shading/coding, and projection mapping. This year’s physical art pieces included the use of microelectronics to create Lumia sculptures in three dimensional objects. Melissa’s pieces utilized a 10″ deep shadow box, a wooden castle, Raspberry Pis and sound reactive LEDs.

ONE: Walk_Bye and OpenRoad Poetry’s 1st Anniversary, An Art and Poetic Showcase
June 2021 – New York/Virtual 

Melissa Ulto was selected as one of the artists for a virtual gallery exhibit for the first anniversary of the Walk_Bye show. Her digital art piece – Bi Pride: Flower Power Series – was included in the VR gallery here.

Easter Bonnet Parade
April 3, 2021 – Jersey City, NJ

Melissa Ulto participated in a group performance art event, with the Westside Merry Makers. The event involved costume and hat design and construction, and wig styling. The event was very successful and reported here.

Halloween Installation
October 31, 2020 – Jersey City, NJ

Melissa Ulto created a site specific installation for a private building in Jersey City, to create a socially distanced installation for children. The content was Halloween themed and mixed live, to allow for interactive play with the projections. The installation was supported by the neighborhood and building, with a donation of equipment rental by Melissa Ulto.

JCAST 30th Anniversary Festival
October 2020 – Jersey City, NJ

Melissa Ulto created a site specific installation that allowed art festival attendees to experience video art while socially distancing. Her work was projected on 180º of the fountain, with a high lumens, projection mapped presentation. She mixed the content live, to a custom DJ mix she created herself. The installation was well received and written up about in the press. Installation supported by city, JCAST, WALK BYE, with donation of equipment rental by Melissa Ulto.

FIGMENT Festival
June 2020 – New York, NY

As part of the FIGMENT Festival, Melissa mixed video art live, to a DJ, for the Covid-friendly digital edition in 2020. Her presentation, as VJ Miixxy, was viewed on all the FIGMENT social channels live and as part of their archive. 

Louche Exotic: A Singapore Bateaux-Mouche Extravaganza
November 2019 – present – Jersey City, NJ/Nyack, NY

On a renovated canal barge, turn-of-the-century Singapore style meets urban chic. A perfect, intimate setting for an invite-only performance, on a limited one-month run, with maximum capacity per performance of 20 people. The entire interior will be covered in video surfaces, allowing for the morphing of time and space, while sitting still. The exclusivity of the immersive theater event will drive its viral exposure, as key arts world influencers & local arts bloggers will be invited for previews. The invite-only event will create a desire to be one of the few guests included in an unforgettable evening. Currently being workshopped.

The Panther Room
2016 – 2017

Video artist and designer for immersive theater production by Blue Man Group/STOMP/QOTN producing staff. Worked on development of various technologies to sustain a month long run event. Created five immersive video backdrops, as well as projection mapped on dancers and performers live. Installation gained industry and art world interest. Digital signage vendor created a white paper about the cutting edge nature of the installatio