Merle Temkin

Merle Temkin is a New York-based artist working in painting, sculpture and installation. Born in Chicago IL and residing in New York City, she holds a B.F.A. degree in painting from the Chicago Art Institute and a M.F.A. degree in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute. Recent awards include two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Awards, a Richard Florsheim Foundation Museum Purchase Award and two residency fellowships at Vermont Studio Center. Past awards include the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and Hereward Lester Cooke Foundation.

Selected solo exhibitions include a permanent painting installation at Lincoln Center Kitchen, David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC; Chicago Cultural Center; National Building Museum, Wash. DC; P.S.1 and Socrates Sculpture Park, NY. She received a public commission to create a permanent sculpture at Park Haglil, Karmiel, Israel. Selected group exhibitions include the Museum of Arts & Design, NY; Racine Art Museum, WI; Jersey City Museum, NJ and Addison/Ripley Fine Art, Washington DC. Past international group exhibitions include Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Germany; Klingspor-Museum, Offenbach, Germany; Beit Ha’ir Urban Culture Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel and Hana Gallery, Seoul, South Korea.

Temkin’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Jersey City Art Museum; Racine Art Museum, WI; Israel Museum, Jerusalem, David Owsley Museum of Art, IN; and the Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design. Her paintings were the subject of two monographs, “Merle Temkin Portfolio Collection,” published by Telos Art, England and “Extreme Scrutiny,” Surface Design Magazine. She has received two individual reviews in The New York Times and one in the Chicago Sun-Times. Her work was also been reviewed in ArtForum, Art News, The Washington Post, New York Magazine and Sculpture Magazine.

For the past few years, trees have been the focus of my work. Because of my sculpture background, I perceive negative space as a way to create the trees. By carving away this space with paint, the tree is revealed. Under-layers of colors are purposely left visible on canvas to establish a history of the painting’s development.