Melinda Johnston

Melinda Johnston has been the Research Librarian, Cartoons at the Alexander Turnbull Library since February 2013. In 2013 she curated the exhibition, ‘Next in Line: The Young Cartoonist’s Award’, and ran the accompanying events programme, including the ‘Cartoon Colloquium: Women and Cartoons Today’. Prior to her role with the Cartoon Archive, she was fixed-term lecturer in art history at the University of Canterbury, running courses from first year through to honours in subjects including modernism, abstraction, contemporary art and the history of art museums. Throughout 2010 and 2011 she was also the Exhibitions Manager for the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts.

Melinda Johnston’s research has focused on socially and politically motivated prints and in 2013 her book, Lateral Inversions: The Prints of Barry Cleavin, was published by the Canterbury University Press. Prior to this her PhD thesis (University College London) focused on the New Zealand artist James Boswell. Boswell was actively engaged in the social, cultural and political scene of 1930s London, producing cartoons and prints raging against fascism and capitalism. She has published in The Journal of New Zealand Art History and written on artists Tony de Lautour, Ben Reid and Shannon Williamson. Melinda curated the ‘Florilegium’ exhibition at the Canterbury Museum in 2009, the Inner Landscapes exhibition at SOFA Gallery in 2009, and survey exhibitions on the works of Barry Cleavin and Dee Copland in 2005 and 2009.

Melinda Johnston was on leave of absence in Germany during 2014 and returned to the Library in January 2015.