Melissa Meyer

Life and work

Melissa Meyer was born in the Bronx and grew up in Queens. She studied at New York University from 1968 to 1975, receiving a B.S. and an M.A. Meyer spent her summers as a scholarship student at the Provincetown Workshop, working with Leo Manso and Victor Candell. Shortly thereafter, in 1974, Meyer made her first visit to Yaddo, upon the recommendation of Helen Frankenthaler. Since that time, she has made countless visits to Yaddo and is currently a board member. Melissa Meyer has been the recipient of many other grants and residencies as well, including a fellowship at The American Academy in Rome (1980), two National Endowment for the Arts grants (1983, 1993), the National Academy 183rd Invitational Eric Isenburger Annual Award (2008) and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2009). In the late-seventies, Melissa Meyer questioned why so many women made collages, an idea that sparked Miriam Schapiro’s interest. Their collaboration became the influential Heresies article entitled Femmage.

Meyer has exhibited over 40 solo shows, beginning in 1976, and has also contributed to numerous group shows. She is currently represented by the New York gallery Lennon, Weinberg, Inc. and, online, by IdeelArt.com. On her last solo exhibition at Lennon, Weinberg, Lance Esplund wrote “… the works suggest a range of elements—water, fire, solid, air—and of personality. The fusion of line and ground in this body of work creates an interplay in which linear movements become spatial arabesques.” In 1984, Meyer had the first one-person exhibit at Exit Art, with an accompanying catalogue essay by Stephen Westfall. From 2003- 2005 she exhibited with Elizabeth Harris. Her 2003 exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue, with an essay written by Meg Wolitzer. In 2006-2008, she held a solo survey exhibition of her black and white works on paper at the New York Studio School. The show then traveled to Weigand Gallery and Notre Dame de Namur University. Meyer held another survey show at Swarthmore College, which traveled to Selby Gallery and Ringling College of Art and Design. The catalogue included essays by Robert Storr and David Cohen. Melissa Meyer was included in a group show at The National Academy Museum in New York, entitled Contemporary Selections: Aligning Abstraction in 2011.

In 1997, Melissa Meyer's sketchbooks were reprinted in facsimile format, published by the Mezzanine Gallery of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 2001-2002, she completed two large lobby murals for the Shiodome City Center, designed by Roche-Dinkeloo and Associates, in the Minato district of Tokyo. One mural is 60 by 11 feet, comprising eight panels. The other measures 40 by 50 feet, comprising 35 panels. She painted these in a rented studio in Brooklyn and during the summer she spent as faculty at Skowhegan in the summer of 2002. Meyer has also done commissions for the Princess Cruise Lines (1996–1997), Queens Hospital Center (2004) and the Peninsula Hotel in Shanghai (2010).

Melissa Meyer's paintings and works on paper are included in many public and private collections, such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Jewish Museum, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and The National Academy Museum. Meyer currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York.