MELISSA ZINK
Nearly 20 years ago, Melissa Zink came to my wife, Joni Tickel, and me with a proposal: If we would open a gallery, she would keep us supplied with inventory. And did she ever. We had a glorious run together, with a string of annual exhibitions that, for aesthetic quality and commercial excitement, have become legendary in the long history of art made in the region. As you know, Melissa died three years ago, and since then I’ve curated several shows of her major works and represented her estate with pride.
Now it’s time to begin settling the estate and for me to move on. The Harwood Museum of Art here in Taos has expressed interest in taking possession of artwork, along with the archives of letters, articles, photographs, ephemera, etc. It seems only right that this wonderful museum in Taos, the town that first recognized and encouraged her genius, would provide the permanent home for her legacy.
In the meantime Nelson Zink and I have decided to offer select works to you who have admired her for so long. The pieces pictured below, which include examples from a number of her singular series, are available at negotiable prices between now and the end of October. (Prices here reflect the current retail value of each piece). Call or email me for details.
Thank you for your patronage and your support of one of our most original artists. And consider this excellent – and perhaps last -- opportunity to acquire a Zink.
Stephen Parks
Artist Bio →
Early Career
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Mid Career
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Later Career
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Bronzes
“For the Love of Dog” Melissa Zink Bronzes Melissa Zink is widely remembered as the creator of important and beautiful art.But wit and whimsy were often evident, and never more so than in her 2007 series of bronze dogs. “I must have been building up this store of puppy love that had no outlet,” she said at the time. “Besides the love, there’s another part of dogs, some kind of essential poignancy that I feel. They’re so close to speaking and yet they can’t, and that makes me think about language and how extraordinary it is that we have it.” One of these wonderful creatures would make a very special holiday gift. Call the gallery for details.
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BIOGRAPHY
Melissa Zink Artist Statement
What we are looking for, whether in a gallery or a shop, is transportation to that remarkable state of mind which seems like a brief glimpse of Enlightenment. It is probably irrelevant how it is produced. The state of mind, I mean. Whether a Balinese tobacco container or a Rembrandt etching takes one's breath away, what is crucial is to become breathless.
Melissa Zink Resume
Born: 1932, Kansas City, MO
Died: 2009, Taos, NM
Education: Emma Willard School; Swarthmore College; University of Chicago; Kansas City Art Institute.
Married (Nelson Zink), one daughter
One-Person Shows and honors:
1981: Clay and Fiber, Taos, NM, ceramics
1981: Tally Richards Gallery, Taos, NM, drawings
1982: Gump's Gallery, San Francisco, CA, ceramics and drawings
1983: Elaine Horwitch Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, ceramics and drawings
1985: Gump's Gallery, San Francisco, CA, drawings
1985: Elaine Horwitch Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, ceramics and drawings
1987: Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, ceramics and drawings
1989: Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, "Dimensional Paintings"
1990: Taos Art Association and The Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, “Melissa Zink: Journeys 1977 –1990”
1991: Munson Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, sculpture and paintings
1992: Bellas Artes, New York, "Choices/Changes," interactive sculptures
1993: University of Colorado Art Gallery, Boulder, CO, sculpture and paintings
1994: The Parks Gallery, Taos, NM, "A Non-Linear Investigation of Sticks and Their Properties," sculpture and paintings
1995: The Parks Gallery, Taos, NM, "The Book People and The Thumbprint Editions," sculpture and paintings.
1996: Roswell Museum, Roswell NM, "Melissa Zink, A Retrospective."
The Parks Gallery, Taos, NM, "An Inquiry into the Elegantly Implacable Roots of Memory," sculpture and paintings.
1997: The Parks Gallery, Taos, NM, "12 Classic Works, 1983-1996."
1998: The Parks Gallery, Taos, "The Secret Syntax of Melissa Zink"
1999: The Parks Gallery, Taos, "From the Lost Library: Volumes and Illustrations," sculpture and mixed media paintings.
2000: National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., “From the States Exhibition,” New Mexico Representative
2001: Parks Gallery, “Characters,” she said. “Not Letters, Characters,” new mixed media work.
2002: St. John’s College Fine Arts Gallery, “In Retrospect, the Obsession is Clear,” survey exhib.
2004: Parks Gallery, Taos, “A Few Beautiful Mysteries,” new sculpture and mixed media.
2005: Parks Gallery, Taos, "Quiddities: Precise Ambiguities within Interrupted Continuities"
2006: Parks Gallery, Taos, "A Celebration"
2006: Harwood Museum, Taos, "Enchantment of Language," solo retrospective
2007: "Good Dog," Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2009: “Melissa Zink: Her Singular World,” Taos Art Museum and Fechin House.
Selected Group Shows:
1979: Clay and Fiber, Taos, NM
1980: Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX
1980: Taos Art Association (sculpture prize)
1981: Gump's Gallery, San Francisco, CA, "Clay 1981"
1981: The O.J. Foundation, Albany, TX, "Taos Today, A Survey," touring show
1982: Santa Fe Festival of the Arts, Santa Fe, NM (ceramics prize)
1983: Sebastian-Moore Gallery, Denver, CO, "Crafts: New Directions"
1983: Taos Art Association, invitational
1984: Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM, "Southwest/Midwest Exchange"
1984: Lill Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
1984: Elaine Horwitch Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ
1984-85: "Anxious Interiors," touring exhibition: Laguna Beach Museum and the Art Museum Association; Alaska State Museum, Juneau; Alaska Association for the Arts, Fairbanks; Visual Arts Center of Alaska, Anchorage; Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Center for the Arts, Banff, Alberta, Canada; Visual Arts Gallery, Florida International University, Miami; USF Art Galleries, University South Florida, Tampa; Munson-Williams Proctor Inst, Utica, NY
1986: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO, "The New West Exhibition"
1986: Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
1986: Texas Tech University, The Museum, Lubbock, TX, "Neighbors"
1988: Santa Fe Festival of the Arts Invitational, Santa Fe, NM (first prize)
1989: New Mexico Arts and Crafts Fair, Albuquerque, judge and exhibitor
1990: Alexander Milliken Gallery, New York
1990: Sherry French Gallery, New York, "Illumination and Radiance: Epiphanies in Contemporary Painting," a show travelling to Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA; Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX; Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC
1993: J. Cacciola Galleries, New York
1993: Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, "Metaphysics of the Room"
1994: "The Book as Art," citywide invitational exhibition in Santa Fe, NM
1994: Walton Art Center, Fayetteville, AR, "Artists of the Spirit”
1995: "Artists of America, 15th Annual Art Exhibition & Sale," Denver Rotary Club, Denver.
1996: "Contemporary American Realist Painters," Hall's Gallery, Kansas City, MO
1996: "Contemporary Art in New Mexico," curated by Jan Adlmann, Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe.
2002: Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, “From Realism to Abstraction:
Art in New Mexico 1917 - 2002
2003: Albuquerque Museum, “Originals 2003,” Albuquerque, NM
2006: "Language: The Interconnections Between Images and the Written Word," New Mexico Capitol Rotunda Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2006: Green: Inaugural Exhibition, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
Public Collections:
Harwood Foundation Museum, Taos, NM
Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Old Jail House Foundation, Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM
St. John’s College Library, Santa Fe, NM
Selected Books and Publications:
ARTlines, Taos, NM, 1981, 1983
American Ceramics, New York, 1984, 1989 American Crafts, 1993
Arts, New York, 1985
Art News, New York, 1983, 1988, 1995
Art Space, Albuquerque, NM 1983, 1988 Horizon, 1987
Journal of Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 1988
Taos Magazine, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2001
"Creative People at Work" Doris B. Wallace, Howard E. Gruber, 1989, Oxford University Press
"Exposures: Women and Their Art": Brown, Raven (authors), Love (photographer), 1989, NewSage Press
"Artists of the Spirit," Mary Carroll Nelson, 1994, Arcus Publishing
"Development and the Arts, critical perspectives," ed. by Margery B. Franklin and Bernard Kaplan, 1994, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
"Contemporary Art in New Mexico," by Jan Adlmann, 1996, Craftsman House.
Southwest Art, Houston, 1989, 1996
Sculpture Review, New York, 1997
Santa Fean, Santa Fe, 1995, 1999
Women in the Arts, “Melissa Zink’s Magical Array,” by Lisa Siegrist, Sept,. 2000
Wall Street Journal, “The Mysteries of Lines and Letters,” Hollis Walker, April 23, 2002
New Mexico Magazine, “Artists of a Different Hue,” October, 2002
Art & Antiques, “Literary License: Melissa Zink’s cryptic art tantalizes viewers,” Gussie Fauntleroy, January, 2003.
Harper’s Magazine, October 2005
Organizations:
Member National Sculpture Society