Press

2025

Broad Street Review (June 2025)
The African American Museum in Philadelphia presents Demond Melancon: As Any Means Are Necessary

CBS News Sunday Morning (May 2025)
New Orleans "Beadmaster" Pays Homage to Mardi Gras' History with His Art

6abc/WPVI-TV (April 2025)
Artist Demond Melancon Works with a Needle and Thread to Create Glass-Beaded Pieces

Hype Magazine (South Africa, April 2025)
The Levi’s® Brand and Denim Tears Celebrate New Orleans Heritage in Fourth Collaborative Collection

YoMzansi (April 2025)
Levi’s® x Denim Tears Drop Their 4th Collection

The Philadelphia Tribune (April 2025)
AAMP Introduces the Community to Black Masking Culture

Blazon Magazine (South Africa, April 2025)
The Levi’s® Brand and Denim Tears Celebrate New Orleans Heritage in Fourth Collaborative Collection

Levi’s® (April 2025)
Levi’s® x Denim Tears Season 4

stupidDOPE (April 2025)
Levi’s® and Denim Tears Deliver Season 4 Inspired by New Orleans Heritage

Pause Magazine (UK, April 2025)
Levi’s® x Denim Tears Celebrate Heritage in Their Latest Collection

Hero Magazine (April 2025)
The New Levi’s® and Denim Tears Collab Celebrates the Black Maskers of New Orleans

Denim Tears (April 2025)
Across the Canal

Modern Notoriety (March 2025)
Denim Tears x Levi’s® Season 4 Honors Mardi Gras Black Maskers

Hypebeast (March 2025)
Levi's® and Denim Tears' Season Four Collab Honors New Orleans and the Black Masking Indian Tradition

Vogue (March 2025)
Mardi Gras Indian Artistry Meets High Fashion in New Orleans

Forbes (March 2025)
How the Mardi Gras Indians Honor the African and Indigenous Cultures of New Orleans

New York Amsterdam News (February 2025)
Award-Winning Artist Finds Inspiration, Creative Lifeline in NYC’s Bead District

Hyperallergic (February 2025)
The Opulent Beadwork of Black Masker Demond Melancon

2024

The Post and Courier (October 2024)
Charleston's Gibbes Museum Awards New Orleans Artist Prize for Intricate, Hand-Sewn Beaded Works

Charleston City Paper (September 2024)
Black Masking and Beadwork on Display at the Halsey

NPO 1 (Netherlands, August 2024)
Underground Tracks: Freedom

W Magazine (August 2024)
The Most Anticipated Art Shows and Exhibitions of 2024

Colossal (August 2024)
Equipped with Joy and Innumerable Glass Beads, Demond Melancon Stitches Reverential Portraits

Holy City Sinner (July 2024)
Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art Announces Demond Melancon: "As Any Means Are Necessary"

ARTnews (June 2024)
In His Mardi Gras Suits and Beadwork Paintings, Demond Melancon Creates Compelling Tensions between Representation and Opacity

Joan Mitchell Foundation (April 2024)
In the Studio: Demond Melancon

ArtsHub (Australia, March 2024)
Exhibition Review: Ten Thousand Suns, 24th Biennale of Sydney

2023

New Orleans Museum of Art (December 2023)
HOPE: The Invisible Thread That Binds | An Interactive Fashion Experience with odAOMO

Adore Magazine, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate (December 2023)
Culture: Have a Stylish Evening at this Interactive Fashion Experience

e-Flux (November 2023)
Biennale of Sydney: Artists, Concepts and Venues for 24th Edition

Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art (November 2023)
Meet the Maker: Demond Melancon

Culture Type (August 2023)
Latest News in Black Art

Artforum (August 2023)
Joan Mitchell Foundation Announces 2023 Fellowships

Joan Mitchell Foundation (August 2023)
Announcing the 2023 Joan Mitchell Fellows

WYES New Orleans (August 2023)
Steppin’ Out, August 17th, 2023

The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate (July 2023)
White Linen Night 2023

The New York Times (June 2023)
In Charleston, a Museum Honors a Journey of Grief and Grace

Garden & Gun (June 2023)
First Look: The International African American Museum

NBC TODAY Show (June 2023)
Craig Melvin Discovers Family History at International African American Museum

Artnet News (May 2023)
‘The Act of Opening a House Is So Beautiful’: Berlin’s Historic House of World Cultures Relaunches With an Ambitious Multisensory Weekend

Colossal (February 2023)
‘All on a Mardi Gras Day’ Follows Big Chief Demond Melancon as He Creates His Beaded Suit for the Annual Celebration

Birmingham Times (February 2023)
Birmingham Museum of Art Spreads Love of Art

2022

Harper’s Magazine (November 2022)
Book of the Living

Adore Magazine, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate (September 2022)
A-List 2022: Demond N. Melancon

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (July 2022)
The Dirty South Weekend: ADMA Artist Talks with Fahamu Pecou

BG Independent News (July 2022)
Toledo Museum of Art Broadens Collection with 27 New Acquisitions

The Washington Post (May 2022)
Mardi Gras Indians Show Off Their Beaded Suits at Jazz Fest

Tulane News (April 2022)
Sawyer Seminar to Discuss Monuments in New Orleans and Mexico City

Colossal (March 2022)
Invoking Black Masking Traditions, Artist Demond Melancon Beads Elaborate, Celebratory Portraits

The New Yorker (February 2022)
The Undersung Histories of Mardi Gras’s Black Indians

The New Yorker (February 2022)
The Year of Dedication That Goes into Becoming a Mardi Gras Indian

Highsnobiety (February 2022)
Tremaine Emory Stitches Family History into Denim Tears x UGG

Hypebeast (February 2022)
Denim Tears' UGG SS22 Collab is an Exploration of Tremaine Emory’s Black Seminole Heritage

Vogue (UK, February 2022)
Denim Tears X Ugg Paints a Beautiful Picture of Black Seminole Heritage

Bristol Herald Courier (February 2022)
Lift Your Spirits: Exhibit at WKMA Explores Nurturing the Human Spirit Through Creativity

Boston Art Review (February 2022)
Now + There’s Visit to New Orleans for Prospect.5 Inspires a Model for a More Collaborative Art City in Boston

Kingsport Times News (January 2022)
'Lift Your Spirits' Opens February 3 at William King Museum of Art

The New York Times (January 2022)
In the Lower Ninth Ward, an Artist Renews His Purpose

2021

Offbeat Magazine (November 2021)
Demond Melancon Brings Black Masking Indian Beadwork into the International Art World

Maker Nation (October 2021)
Meet the Maker: New Orleans-Based Artist, Demond Melancon

International Labour Organization (October 2021)
Teach It to Keep It Going

The Burning Man Journal (August 2021)
“Boundless Space” Artist Stories Part 2: Channeling Radical Creativity Across Traditions & Disciplines

Daily Beast (August 2021)
Congo Square Under Siege: The Latest Threat to Black Culture’s Ground Zero in New Orleans

Design Milk (May 2021)
Big Chief Demond Melancon is Rewriting the Definition of Contemporary Art Through Beads

WGNO TV Channel 26 (April 2021)
Using Artwork to Encourage COVID Vaccinations

Beautiful News (South Africa, April 2021)
Meet the Big Chief Beading His Ancestry into Mardi Gras Indian Suits

The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate (March 2021)
Family, Friends and Mardi Gras Indians Celebrate the Life of Big Chief Dump

The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate (March 2021)
Should We Call Them Mardi Gras Indians, or Should We Be Calling Them Something Else?

Gambit New Orleans (February 2021)
Mardi Gras 2021, Was As Ever, Both Weird and Beautiful

Forbes Magazine (February 2021)
New Orleans Celebrates a Mardi Gras Unlike Any Before

WDSU News Channel 6 (February 2021)
Mardi Gras Indian Display Pops Up at Site of Since-Removed Confederate Monument in Mid-City

Channel 4WWL-TV (February 2021)
Mardi Gras Indian Suit on Display at Former Jefferson Davis Monument Site

The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate (February 2021)
Mardi Gras Indian Suit Appears at Site of Former Jefferson Davis Statue in New Orleans

TV5Monde France (February 2021)
Résiste! - Big Chief Demond Melancon, Artiste Contemporain

2020

My New Orleans (December 2020)
Beading Rhythms

Channel 4WWL-TV (December 2020)
New Orleans Artist is Bringing “Art in the Time of Empathy” to Help the Community Get Through the Pandemic

The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate (November 2020)
2020 Art at the Arthur Roger Gallery

Joan Mitchell Foundation (October 2020)
Seven Local Artists Will Join Joan Mitchell Center Residency on October 19

My New Orleans (October 2020)
70-Artist Exhibition About 2020 Upheaval at Arthur Roger Gallery

BBC World Service (June 2020)
Mardi Gras: The Big Chief Celebrating the Stories of Africa

Yahoo! News (June 2020)
Mardi Gras: The Big Chief Celebrating the Stories of Africa

The Times (UK, June 2020)
Radio Picks of the Week - June 21

BBC World Service, In The Studio Podcast (June 2020)
Demond Melancon: The Bead Master of New Orleans

The Spectator (UK, June 2020)
From Hogarth to Mardi Gras: The Best Art Podcasts

Museum of the African Diaspora (May 2020)
In the Artist’s Studio: Big Chief Demond Melancon

Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA) (April 2020)
Demond Melancon: A Love Letter to New Orleans

Xavier University of New Orleans (January 2020)
Mystery in Motion: African American Spirituality in Mardi Gras

2019

United Nations News (December 2019)
FIRST PERSON: ‘Big Chief’ and the Million Beads

Medium (December 2019)
2020 Oscars Predictions: What Short Films Will Make the Short List?

Cinema Eye Honors (October 2019)
2020 Cinema Eye “Short List” Revealed: 10 of the Year’s Top Short Documentaries

The Chicago Maroon (October 2019)
Tents, Tufting, and Tradition at the Logan Center

Offbeat Magazine (October 2019)
Big Chief Demond Melancon: Tradition to Art

Dezeen (September 2019)
Beaded Mardi Gras Costumes by Big Chief Demond Melancon on Show at V&A

Architectural Digest (September 2019)
The Best of the London Design Festival

The Times (UK, September 2019)
Top Ten Events at the London Design Festival

The Architect’s Newspaper (September 2019)
Here’s What to Catch at This Year’s London Design Festival

Azure (UK, September 2019)
5 Must-See Projects at the London Design Festival

Broadway World Chicago (September 2019)
Tufting Gun Tapestries On View At Logan Center Exhibitions

Gambit (August 2019)
Unusual Exhibition by Three Portraitists

New Orleans Art Insider (August 2019)
New Work by Leonard Galmon, Amer Kobaslija, Demond Melancon and Brandon Surtain at the Arthur Roger Gallery

Colossal (August 2019)
Intricate Beadwork Adorns Handmade Mardi Gras Suits by Demond Melancon

Forbes Magazine (August 2019)
NOPSI Hotel: A Grand Old Utility Bureau Is Now A Top New Orleans Lodge

WDSU Channel 6 News (August 2019)
Hear from Artists Featured at White Linen Night

The Times-Picayune, NOLA.com (June 2019)
Created New Each Year, Mardi Gras Indian Suits Find More Permanent Homes

The Architect’s Newspaper (May 2019)
Assemble Converts New Orleans Garage into Experimental Fashion School

Crafts Magazine, Crafts Council UK (May 2019)
Issue 278: May/June 2019 Edition

Crafts Council UK (May 2019)
Material World: Inside Assemble’s Experimental New Orleans Fashion School

The Spaces (May 2019)
Peek Inside Assemble’s Fashion School in New Orleans

Cultured Magazine (February 2019)
Assemble Brings an Experimental Fashion School to the Ninth Ward