Spokesmen for di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art have announced the first major retrospective by the seminal Bay Area artist Jim Melchert.
“Jim Melchert: Where the Boundaries Are” will open at di Rosa San Francisco on October 18, and will be on view through January 10.
Melchert is often described as the “great philosopher of the post-war craft movement,” and the exhibition will celebrate and explore the legacy of one of America’s great artists, who challenged ceramic tradition of expression, form, and function and helped elevate the medium’s acceptance into mainstream contemporary sculpture. Curated by Griff Williams, founder of Gallery 16 and a close friend of Melchert’s, the exhibition will delve into his storied career, bringing together more than 60 works that span six decades for the first time, including several works that haven’t been publicly exhibited before.
Melchert was a central figure in a community of California artists in the 1960s who elevated the field of ceramics to a contemporary artform. He became a landmark figure in American art along with friends Pete Voulkos, Robert Arneson, Ruth Asawa, Bruce Conner, Roy De Forest, and Bruce Nauman. Through the works on view, the exhibition will explore Melchert’s work with
Voulkos, Ken Price, Viola Frey and Nagle in the 1960s, and will document the artist’s involvement in the California Funk movement, his groundbreaking 1970s performances, his conceptual art, and showcases the thrilling broken tile works that preoccupied the artist at the end of his career.