Merle Temkin

Merle Temkin
Merle Temkin, in her New York studio, 2011.
Merle Temkin, in her New York studio, 2011.
Born1937
Chicago, Illinois, US
EducationSan Francisco Art Institute, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Rhode Island School of Design
Known forPainting, Installation Art, Sculpture
StyleMixed media, Site-specific art
WebsiteMerle Temkin

Merle Temkin is a New York City-based painter, sculptor and installation artist, known for vibrant, abstracted paintings based on her own enlarged fingerprint, and earlier site-specific, mirrored installations of the 1980s. Her work has often involved knitting-like processes of assemblage and re-assemblage, visual fragmentation and dislocation, and explorations of identity, the hand and body, and gender.[1] In addition, critics have remarked on the play in her work between systematic experimentation and intuitive exploration.[2] Her painted and sewn "Fingerprints" body of work has been noted for its "handmade" quality and "sheer formal beauty" in the Chicago Sun-Times[3] and described elsewhere as an "intensely focused," obsessive joining of thread and paint with "the directness and desperation of marks on cave walls."[1] Critic Dominique Nahas wrote "Temkin's labor-intensive cartography sutures the map of autobiography onto that of the universal in sharply revelatory ways."[2] Her public sculptures have been recognized for their unexpected perceptual effects[4] and encouragement of viewer participation.[5] Temkin's work has been featured in publications including the New York Times, Artforum, ARTnews, New York Magazine, and the Washington Post. Her work belongs to the permanent collections of the Racine Art Museum, Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and Israel Museum, among others.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ a b Martin, Lois. "Extreme Scrutiny," Surface Design, Winter, 2003, p.22-5.
  2. ^ a b Nahas, Dominique. "Merle Temkin: Close Encounters," Merle Temkin: Portfolio Collection, Brighton, England: Telos Publishing, 2005.
  3. ^ Nance, Kevin, "Art exhibit redefines 'handmade': Merle Temkin's 'Fingerprints' at Cultural Center," Chicago Sun-Times, January 17, 2007, p. 41.
  4. ^ Fleming, Lee. "Adventures at Artpark," Washington Review, October/November, 1981, p. 6-7.
  5. ^ Brenson, Michael. Review, New York Times, May 16, 1986.
  6. ^ School of the Art Institute of Chicago Magazine, Fall 2017, p. 52.
  7. ^ RISD XYZ, Winter 2017, p. 72. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  8. ^ RISD XYZ, Winter 2017, p. 64. Retrieved March 5, 2018.