Vanessa Michalak is a Maine native and a working artist in Gloucester, MA. She earned a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston with a concentration in painting (2013) and a BSN in nursing from the University of Maine (2004). She was awarded the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Painting in 2014, and her work was included in the publication New American Paintings No. 110. She has also participated in numerous residencies, most notably Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado, PLAYA in Summer Lake, Oregon and the Manship Artists Residency and Studios. In 2024 she participated in Cape Ann Plein Air painting competition as a juried artist and was awarded an honorable mention for one of her paintings. Her work has been exhibited nationally while locally, her work can be found in Gloucester, MA at Jane Deering Gallery, Charles Fine Arts and at her own Studio/Gallery, Michalak Fine Art in Gloucester’s historic Rocky Neck Art Colony.