Niches (2025) 16mm film transferred to video and sound, 7:11.

Janelle VanderKelen is an artist, curator, and educator based in Knoxville, TN. Her films and large-scale ceramic sculptures imagine alternative acts of relation between imperfect bodies (human, vegetal, geological, or otherwise). 

She received her MA in Intermedia Art with a focus on Ceramics and her MFA in Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

VanderKelen’s work has exhibited at institutions including The Museum of Moving Image in New York, NY; Anthology Film Archives in New York, NY; the Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee, WI; and Bow Arts in London, England. Her films have screened at Ann Arbor Film Festival, True/False Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, Athens International Film + Video Festival,  and Antimatter [Media Art] Film Festival.

Her current feature film project, The Golden Thread, received support from a 2025 Creative Capital Award. Other recent honors include juried awards at the 2023 Ann Arbor Film Festival, the 2023 Thomas Edison Film Festival, and the 2024 film+art vienna festival. VanderKelen was also a recipient of a 2023 Nohl Fellowship and 2023 MacDowell Residency.

As part of her creative practice, Janelle co-curates a screening series called aCinema with collaborator Taka Suzuki.

Janelle is the Director of Time-Based Foundations for the School of Art. She teaches within Cinema Studies, Time-Based Art, and Foundations.