Michele Zalopany is an American artist whose photo-based paintings and drawings investigate the histories embedded within found images. Working from archival photographs and film stills—often sourced from vernacular, ethnographic, or documentary contexts—she reinterprets them through traditional media including pastel, watercolor, graphite, and printmaking.

Her practice is rooted in research, probing questions of authorship, intention, and the function of images across time. Through a restrained and direct visual language, Zalopany transforms these source materials into works that foreground both their aesthetic qualities and the layered narratives they carry.

Her work is held in major public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Carnegie Institute.

Born in 1955 in Detroit, part native Hawaiian (Mahele Kanaka Maoli), Michele Zalopany spent her formative years in Detroit and Hawai’i. Her photo-based work is included in over twenty-five permanent international collections including The Whitney Museum of American Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Eli Broad Collection, The USB collection, The Walker Art Center, The Carnegie Institute, and others. She has been a guest lecturer at the American Academy in Rome, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Middlebury College, and others. She was a Visiting Lecturer of Visual Arts at Harvard University 2007-2008 & 2009. From 2001-2014, she was an Adjunct Professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Michele Zalopany lives and works in NYC.