Melissa MEYER has written that for her work to succeed it should be concerned with reality, but that part of reality that is inexact, uncertain, mysterious, maybe anxious, and in a state of becoming an art involved with feelings.
To a viewer unaccustomed to her work, looking at Meyer's paintings is like learning a foreign language. People try to translate parts of a painting into something understandable, rather than take in the totality of what she is trying to express. Her work could be approached as one might asemic writing. Meyer enjoys the improvisational and emotional qualities of Jazz, so she encourages them to think of her work as a Jazz performance. Or, she might suggest that the movement of her brush across the surface echoes the movement of an actor across the big screen, like the sinuous gestures of Burt Lancaster in the Sweet Smell of Success.
Meyer might also point out her study of the tonal qualities of Film Noir. Sometimes she refers to handwriting, urban graffiti or linear natural forms. And sometimes it makes sense to think of the logic of architecture or the colors of a landscape. But these are ephemeral references that merely hint at what she is doing. To really understand her work one has to stop translating them literally and, over many viewings, simply learn the language of emotion that her paintings speak.
To attain that inexact, uncertain state of becoming, Meyer looks for ways to rediscover that moment when she doesn’t know what is going to happen. Exploring different scales, contexts and materials has been a way to transform the language of her work.
This approach has been informed by her exploration and study of collage. Early on, this resulted in a commission for Ms. Magazine, and her collaboration with Miriam Schapiro in the 1978 issue of Heresies Magazine, an essay titled Femmage which traced the history of collage to forms of cutting, pasting, recycling, collecting in work of women artists predating the investigations of Picasso and Braque. This line of inquiry continues in Meyer's recent work; beside her contribution to RE-ACTION, Meyer also completed a series of collages for Esopus:22 in 2015.
Meyer's lengthy exhibition history includes national and international solo exhibitions at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc. (NY); Elizabeth Harris Gallery (NY); Rebecca Ibel Gallery (NY); Holly Solomon Gallery (NY) and Galerie Renee Ziegler (Zurich).
Meyer's development has been surveyed in two traveling exhibitions; one originated at the New York Studio School and the second at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Her works have been included recently in group exhibitions at the Jewish Museum (NY); Texas Gallery (Houston); Montclair Art Museum (New Jersey); Hyde Collection (Glens Falls) and National Academy of Design (NY), an organization of which she is a member.
She has completed public commissions in New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and for the new U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Her work is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY); MoMA (NY); Brooklyn Museum (NY); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (NY); Jewish Museum (NY) and many other public and private collections.
She was awarded a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. She is a frequent artist in residence at Yaddo (Saratoga Springs, NY) as well as at the Vermont Studio Center.
Melissa Meyer lives and works in NY (USA).
To a viewer unaccustomed to her work, looking at Meyer's paintings is like learning a foreign language. People try to translate parts of a painting into something understandable, rather than take in the totality of what she is trying to express. Her work could be approached as one might asemic writing. Meyer enjoys the improvisational and emotional qualities of Jazz, so she encourages them to think of her work as a Jazz performance. Or, she might suggest that the movement of her brush across the surface echoes the movement of an actor across the big screen, like the sinuous gestures of Burt Lancaster in the Sweet Smell of Success.
Meyer might also point out her study of the tonal qualities of Film Noir. Sometimes she refers to handwriting, urban graffiti or linear natural forms. And sometimes it makes sense to think of the logic of architecture or the colors of a landscape. But these are ephemeral references that merely hint at what she is doing. To really understand her work one has to stop translating them literally and, over many viewings, simply learn the language of emotion that her paintings speak.
To attain that inexact, uncertain state of becoming, Meyer looks for ways to rediscover that moment when she doesn’t know what is going to happen. Exploring different scales, contexts and materials has been a way to transform the language of her work.
This approach has been informed by her exploration and study of collage. Early on, this resulted in a commission for Ms. Magazine, and her collaboration with Miriam Schapiro in the 1978 issue of Heresies Magazine, an essay titled Femmage which traced the history of collage to forms of cutting, pasting, recycling, collecting in work of women artists predating the investigations of Picasso and Braque. This line of inquiry continues in Meyer's recent work; beside her contribution to RE-ACTION, Meyer also completed a series of collages for Esopus:22 in 2015.
Meyer's lengthy exhibition history includes national and international solo exhibitions at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc. (NY); Elizabeth Harris Gallery (NY); Rebecca Ibel Gallery (NY); Holly Solomon Gallery (NY) and Galerie Renee Ziegler (Zurich).
Meyer's development has been surveyed in two traveling exhibitions; one originated at the New York Studio School and the second at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Her works have been included recently in group exhibitions at the Jewish Museum (NY); Texas Gallery (Houston); Montclair Art Museum (New Jersey); Hyde Collection (Glens Falls) and National Academy of Design (NY), an organization of which she is a member.
She has completed public commissions in New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and for the new U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Her work is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY); MoMA (NY); Brooklyn Museum (NY); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (NY); Jewish Museum (NY) and many other public and private collections.
She was awarded a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. She is a frequent artist in residence at Yaddo (Saratoga Springs, NY) as well as at the Vermont Studio Center.
Melissa Meyer lives and works in NY (USA).