Jim Melchert

Jim Melchert, “Untitled,” 1989 (Multi-colored ceramic tile for swimming pool)

Oliver Ranch Installation — Jim Melchert, “Untitled,” 1989 (Multi-colored ceramic tile for swimming pool)

Jim Melchert was born in 1930 in Ohio and received an AB from Princeton University in 1952 and went on to earn an MFA from the University of Chicago in 1957 and an MA in from the University of California in 1961. Melchert has been at the center of the Bay Area’s artistic growth and served as Visual Artist Head at the NEA and the Director of the American Academy at Rome. His work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Oakland Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the University Art Museum at UC Berkeley. Melchert has worked in a variety of media, including drawing, film, and ceramics. The path of his artistic development is conceptual, and his ideas led him to a unique process involving ceramic tiles: breaking them, drawing on them, reassembling them and painting the constructions with glaze. He has played a critical role in advancing the art curriculum at the University of California, Berkeley and the San Francisco Art Institute.

Solo Exhibitions
Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 2008; Katzen American University Art Museum, Washington, D.C., 2006; Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA, 2005; Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 2003; Revolution Gallery, Ferndale (Detroit), MI; Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston, 2000; Revolution Gallery, Ferndale (Detroit), MI, 1998; European Ceramic Work Centre, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Holland; Revolution Gallery, Ferndale (Detroit), MI, 1995; Revolution Gallery, Ferndale (Detroit), MI, 1994; Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, 1992; Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, 1991; Kala Institute, Berkeley, CA; San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, 1981; Gallerie Fignal, Amsterdam, 1978; Nancy Lurie Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1977; Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 1975

Selected Collections
Rene Di Rosa Preserve, Napa Public Collections; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; Video Archives, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; American Craft Museum, New York; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Oakland Art Museum, CA; Rose Museum, Brandeis University; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; European Ceramics Works Centre, s’Hertogenbosch Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; Ichon World Ceramic Center, Suwon, Kyonggi-do, South Korea; Yale University Art Gallery; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Baltimore Art Museum; Des Moines Art Center; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

Commissions
Tile Mural for the Residence of the American ambassador to Singapore, 1996; Wall Sculpture at CASE Western Reserve University, OH, 1993; Tile Mural at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1992; Shelter, Metropolitan Rapid Transit, Sacramento, CA, 1991; Tile Mural at River West Development Sculpture Park, Folsom, CA, 1990; Tile Border for swimming pool, Oliver Ranch and Sculpture Park, Geyserville, CA, 1989; Sculpture at the di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA, 1965

Melchert’s Oliver Ranch tile project provides a stylistic rainbow of ceramic tiles that surrounds the border of the pool and a shower for pool users. This installation defines the unique artistic characteristic of the main home and the surrounding property.

Learn more about Jim Melchert’s art at www.jimmelchert.com.

Photos of Jim Melchert’s Work at Oliver Ranch

(Click to enlarge)

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