Melissa Kretschmer

BORN

 

1962, Santa Monica, California

Lives and works in New York City

 

EDUCATION

 

1988     

MFA, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena

 

1986     

BFA, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

 

2018

Galeria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples

 

2016

Lesley Heller, New York

Ace Gallery, Los Angeles

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

 

2015     

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

 

2014     

Giacomo Guidi, Rome

Drawing Room, Hamburgh

 

2009     

Online Project Room, Dinter Fine Arts, New York

 

2008     

Galeria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples          

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Galerie Meert-Rihoux, Brussels

Yvon Lambert, Paris

 

2007     

ACE Gallery, Beverly Hills    

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

Lesley Heller, New York

 

2004     

ACE Gallery, Beverly Hills

Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris

 

2003     

Kunst-Station, Sankt Peter, Köln (catalogue)

Geukens & De Vil, Knokke

 

2002    

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

Stark Gallery, New York

ACE Gallery, Los Angeles

 

2001     

Boulder Museum of Art, Boulder

 

 

2000     

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

Galerie Frank, Paris

Galerie Cramer, Bonn

 

1999     

Westenburg, Marfa

 

1998     

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris

Trans Hudson, New York

Caledonian Hall, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

 

1996     AMO Gallery, Los Angeles

 

1994    

Littlejohn/Sternau, New York

Fulcrum, New York

 

1993     

Julian Pretto, New York (closing show)

Julian Pretto, New York

 

1992     

Julian Pretto, New York

 

 

1990     

Between Engagements, Anne Plumb, New York

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

 

2018

Beyond Black and White, Westbeth Gallery, New York

Painting After Postmodernism: Belgium – Italy – USA, curated by Barbara Rose, Reggia di Caserta, Caserta

 

2017

50 Years of Konrad Fischer Galerie 1967-2017, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Painting After Postmodernism: Belgium – USA, curated by Barbara Rose, Palacio Episcopal, Málaga

 

2016

Painting After Postmodernism: Belgium – USA, curated by Barbara Rose, Vanderborght & Cinema Galeries | The Underground, Brussels

 

2015     

Melissa Kretschmer & Russell Maltz: Plywood, Minus Space, Brooklyn

Govern the Case: The Work in its Making From the Sixties to the Present, Pinacoteca Comunale,  Città di Castello, Umbria

30 years, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

 

2013    

Julian Pretto Gallery, Minus Space, Brooklyn

 

2011     

Personal Structures: Space - Time - Existence, Palazzo Bembo, Venice

 

2010     

25 Years, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

Anti Icon, Eaton Fine Art, Inc., West Palm Beach (catalogue)

 

2009     

One Copenhagen, Stalke Up North, Copenhagen

From a Big Crash to a New Deal, 1000eventi, Milan

Turtle, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris

Assemblage Abstract, Dinter Fine Arts, New York

 

2008     

One More, Thomas Rehbein Galerie, Köln

Winter Salon on Paper, Björn Ressle Fine Arts, New York

One More, Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Esbjerg

 

2007     

One, Björn Ressle Fine Arts, New York

Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel

21 Years, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris

The Eclectic Eye: Pop and Illusion, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs

Turtle, Nuäns Ausstellungsraum, Düsseldorf

Summertime, Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel

LeWitt X 2, Miami Art Museum, Miami

 

2006    

LeWitt X 2, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison

It Takes a Lifetime, Paula Barr Chelsea, New York

Peep Show, Rule Gallery, Denver

Dedica: 1986-2006, Twenty Years of the Alfonso Artiaco Gallery, Palazzo della Arti Napoli, Naples

Small Works- Petit Formats, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris

Turtle, Chelsea Space, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London

Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel

Galeria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples

Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris

Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York

 

2005     

Glass, Seriously, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Projects, Long Island City

Galerie 1000eventi, Milan

 

2004     

ACE Gallery, Beverly Hills

Election, American Fine Arts, New York

Armored, Planet Thailand, Brooklyn

Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

 

2003     

Minimalism and More: Contemporary Art from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Pepperdine University, Malibu

Selections from the LeWitt Collection, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain

Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris

 

2002     

Ready-Made Color, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris (catalogue)

Ace Gallery, New York

Galerie Arnaud lefebvre, Paris

 

2001     

Geukens & De Vil, Knokke

Gamel Fraser, Mendocino

 

2000     

Rule Modern and Contemporary, Denver

Transparency, Translucency, Opacity, Galerie Frank, Paris

 

1999     

Rule Modern and Contemporary, Denver

Transparent Façade, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles

Galerie Frank, Paris

 

1998    

Voix, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris

Transparent Façade, The Work Space Gallery, New York

Foot Falls, Greenport, Long Island

Vision Festival, Orenzans Arts Center, New York

Art Miami '98, special projects installation, Miami Beach

 

1997    

CIAP (Vereniging voor Actuele Kunst), Hasselt

Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica

Art Auction 6, Long Beach Museum, Long Beach

The Whole World in a Small Painting, II, Trans Hudson, New York

 

1996     

Trans Hudson, Jersey City

Erik Satie, Robert Smithson, Melissa Kretschmer, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris

Image/After Image, The Work Space Gallery, New York

Formal Abstraction, Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica

Recent Acquisitions: The Collection of Julian Pretto, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

Epitaphs, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York

In Small Dimensions, Andre Zarre, New York

 

1995    

The Whole World in a Small Painting, Trans Hudson, Jersey City

Julian's Show II, Littlejohn/Sternau, New York

Material Abuse, Trans Hudson, Jersey City

 

1994    

Faith, Fetish, Spirit, Westenburg, Great Barrington

Beyond Virtual, Back to Actual, Fulcrum, New York

New Recruits, In Collaboration, Santa Monica

Five Abstract Artists, Littlejohn/Sternau, New York

 

1993     

BOMB magazine benefit exhibition, Fawbush, New York

Jours Transquilles à Clichy, Paolo Goyannes, Paris

Jours Transquilles à Clichy, TennisportArts, Long Island City

Silent Echoes, TennisportArts, Long Island City

Beyond Paint, Tibor de Nagy, New York

Works on Paper, Julian Pretto, New York

Contemporary Drawings, Part II, ARENA, New York

Inaugural Exhibition, TennisportArts, Long Island City

 

1992     

ARENA, New York

Slow Art, PS1 Museum, Long Island City

Rumored Paintings, Anne Plumb, New York

Small Works, Julian Pretto, New York

 

1991     

Constructed Black Paintings, Julian Pretto, New York

Abstract Painting: Process and Materials, Ben Shahn Gallery, Paterson College, Wayne

Surface Issues, Stephen Haller, New York

 

1990     

New Talent, Julian Pretto, New York

 

1988     

Out of Order, Anne Plumb, New York

EXCAVATIONS

My paintings exist at the crossroads of the sculptural and the painterly, where the interaction of the works’ elements enables them to exist both on a plane and in a space all at once.  They are as much about the inside as they are about the surface and support.  Layering and the building of sculptural relief-like structures have also been two consistent elements in my work.  Together, process and materials are the means by which my work is generated and develops.  I do not work from sketches or preliminary diagrams but allow the work to develop on it’s own, taking cues from the materials themselves.

More recently, I have introduced a new element of sawing and cutting.  I generally begin with common plywood and build up various layers with overlapping sheets of vellum and washy gesso to achieve a delicate, translucent surface.  Then I reverse the process by carving back into the work to reveal both the original wood surface and its interior edges.  The resulting fissures generate new edges and surfaces to which I can apply beeswax or small amounts of gouache.  These proportionately small amounts of applied color accentuate the natural colors of the wood, whether it is laid bare or veiled beneath a whitewashed surface.  The carved lines also become another means of drawing, as does the overlapping edges of the collaged vellum, the occasional pencil line, and the raised edges of a taped painted line or field.  I am interested in the interplay between very subtle, almost hidden subtleties and the coarseness of an excavated surface, like the experience of listening to Satie in the rush-hour madness of Union Square Station.

The impetus behind these works came from two thoughts that arose in my mind.  First, if the edges of the works are so important why not put them in the center of the work?  Second, given that the issues of surface and support have long been at the center of abstract painting, has anyone thought to address the inside of both?  Surface has everything to do with what lies beneath it.  It is shaped, colored and texturized by its physicality, whether thin or thick, visible or not.  What happens on the surface begins deep within. 

I see a relationship between photography and the development of images.  Before the perceptual depth of the two-dimensional image can exist, there is the physical depth of the surface from which it emanates.  The photographic image is utterly reliant upon light penetrating the surface and activating its interior. 

I have never been fully satisfied with or convinced by the simple dichotomy of “surface and support”.  I’ve always felt there was more, that the experience was potentially more complicated and full than that.  There is a literal, physical depth to painting, one that inevitably enriches and accentuates a perceptual depth.  Gertrude Stein is right:  there is more there there.