08/20/2023
Please give a big welcome to our newest live-in Artist in Resident at Rubber City Prints, Melih Meric. Melih earned their Masters of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Print Media. They also earned a Bachelor's Degree in Printmaking and Drawing from Bennington College, where they also spent four years as the shop technician.
Melih was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. Expressing their identity as a q***r artist while keeping safe was a personal challenge. Melih accepted a scholarship to United World College Maastricht (UWC), a program that honors cultural differences and aims to make a sustainable future through celebrating diversity.
Melih's thesis focuses on caring for works on paper and assisting projects that involve alternative and sustainable printmaking processes. As a practicing printmaker and emerging artist, they have been working with fellow early career and established artists to realize print projects for a number of organizations and shows while being committed to green and non-toxic methods, alternative cleaning without spirits and zero waste solutions.
Melih's work has been internationally exhibited from Cologne, Germany; Nagoya, Japan; Istanbul, Turkey to New York City, USA. They were selected to exhibit in the juried Print Austin Contemporary Print show this year. In their most recent group show in Ferndale, Michigan, they have exhibited works that deal with displacement and using pattern as a gateway to understand a spiritual journey. Their practice questions and challenges multiple traditions in Islamic geometry and in printmaking itself. It contains alternative methods of printmaking and presents editions in stitched forms to create unifying imagery.
We are so excited to have Melih at our printshop and welcome them to the West Hill neighborhood. Melih is currently bringing new life to our studio space at Rubber City Prints!
Please follow their journey and stay tuned for upcoming workshops
#}