Melissa Miller
Texas artist Melissa Miller anchors the 2012/2013 Season with vivid, pastoral tableaus that are the result of more than two decades of reflection upon the symbiotic, often complex relationship between humans and animals. Seamless brushwork renders themes common to both man and beast such as power, instinct, coexistence, affection and survival.
Melissa was born in Houston, Texas. She received a bachelor of fine arts from the University of New Mexico, began a teaching career at Austin Museum of Art School that led to positions as a visiting lecturer and guest artist at over 40 universities, colleges and art institutes. She recently retired from her position as Associate Professor at the University of Texas, where she taught from 1998 to 2011.
She has exhibited work at many of the major museums in America. These include the Hirshorn and Corcoran Museums in Washington, D.C., the Brooklyn Museum of Fine Arts, the New Orleans Museum, the San Francisco Museum, and the Fine Arts Museums in Houston, Dallas and Forth Worth. Her work has also been featured in the prestigious Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennial.
Melissa is the recipient of many honors for her work: three individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and awards from the Dallas Museum of Art, Art League Houston, the Dallas Visual Arts Association, and the National Council of the Arts Administrators. Her paintings have been collected by numerous prominent museums, such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, NY, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (through 1990)
2008
Melissa Miller: Texas Artist of the Year Exhibition, Art League Houston, Houston,TX (catalogue)
2007
Melissa Miller: Works on Paper, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX
2006
Melissa Miller: Works on Paper, Nave Museum, Victoria, TX
2005
Melissa Miller: Recent Works on Paper, The Ellen Noel Art Museum, Odessa, TX
2004
New Paintings, Selby Gallery, Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL
A Bestiary, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
Bestiary, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Stanton, VA
2003
New Paintings, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX
New Paintings, Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, TX
2002
New Paintings, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
2001
Melissa W. Miller, St. Edwards University, Fine Arts Gallery, Austin, TX
1999
Melissa Miller, Dallas Visual Arts Center, Dallas, TX
1995
Melissa Miller: Paintings 1986-1995, Holly Solomon, New York, NY; Texas Gallery, Houston, TX (catalogue)
1991
Melissa Miller: The Artist’s Eye, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX
1990
Paintings, Georgia State University Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS (through 1990):
2011
Second Nature: Contemporary Landscapes from the MFAH Collection, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX
Other Nations, Williams Tower Gallery, Houston, TX
2010
35 Years: Anniversary Exhibition, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX
Flora & Fauna, Scanlan Gallery, St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, Austin, TX
Texas Women Printmakers, Texas Women’s University, Denton, TX
2009
10th Anniversary Exhibition, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
animalkind, University Art Gallery, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
Texas Chair Project by Damian Priour, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX
2008
Reality Check: Representational Paintings from the Modern and Contemporary Collection of the MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
Something New, Dunn & Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
Atelier, Selections from the Department of Art and Art History Faculty at The University of Texas Austin, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX (catalogue)
Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
2007
Everything, Dunn & Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
Measured Strokes, Spontaneous Beasts, Paintings by Sarah Canright and Melissa Miller, Sarofim School of Fine Arts, Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX
2006
Texas 100: Selections from the El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX (catalogue)
Flatbed in Marfa, 124 El Paso Street (Julie Speed’s studio), Marfa, TX
Bestiary, Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR
Fresh Ink, Flatbed Editions, Nancy Scanlin Gallery, Austin, TX
2005
Land, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
The Natural World, Beeville Art Museum, Beeville, TX
At the Water’s Edge, Austin Museum of Art – Laguna Gloria, Austin, TX
2004
Perspectives @ 25: A Quarter Century of New Art in Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX (catalogue)
Texas Paint, Part one: More True Stories, Arlington Museum of Art, Arlington, TX
Texas Vision: The Barrett Collection, Southern Methodist University, Houston, TX
b-Side: 2nd Studio & Design Faculty Show, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
5th Anniversary Exhibition, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
Mythmakers and Storytellers: Narrative Art by Texas Artists, Nancy Wilson Scanlan Gallery, Helm Fine Arts Center, St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, Austin, TX
Flatbed Press: Texas Grit, William Campbell Contemporary Art, Fort Worth, TX
21/30 Artistas Graficas de Texas, Galleria del Instituto de Artes Plasticas de la Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, Mexico
2003
Flip, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
For the Birds, Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, TX
2002
Wild Life: The Other Tradition, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL
Groundwork, Recent Work by Faculty in the Department of Art and Art History
at the University of Texas at Austin, Creative Research Laboratory, Austin, TX
Next, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
Re: Vision FIVE WOMEN Re: Vision, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2001
Artists Collect Art, The Nancy Wilson Scanlan Gallery, Helm Fine Arts Center, St. Stephen’s Episcopal, Austin, TX
Beauty Without Regret, Bellas Artes Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Our Crowd Collects, Margolis Gallery, Congregation Beth Israel, Houston, TX
Private Collections: Artists, Curators, and Collectors, The Gallery at the University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX
2000
On The Edge: Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX
The Sixty-Second Annual Art Faculty Exhibition, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Plano Walls: Texas Artists... A Glimpse at Local Private Art Collections, Art Center of Plano, Plano, TX
Crossing State Lines: Texas Art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Uniquely Texas Icons, New Braunfels Museum of Art, New Braunfels, TX
Opening Exhibition, Davis Gallery, Austin, TX
25 Years, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX
1999
Summer Collection Show, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Group Show, Lyons Matrix Gallery, Austin, TX
The Aquarium Show, Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, TX
1998
Family Ties, Lyons Matrix Gallery, Austin, TX
Flatbed Prints, Flatbed Press, Austin, TX
Contemporary Texas Artists: Connie Arismendi, James Cobb, Melissa Miller, and Kathy Vargas, Weil Gallery, Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX
New Works by Contemporary Artists, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Prints from the Collection of David Durham on loan from The Center for Contemporary Arts in Abilene, Texas, Stephen F. Austin State University Department of Art - Griffith Gallery, Nacogdoches, TX
Exhibition of Selected Works By Faculty, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX
1997
Link, Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, TX
Dogs Days Group Exhibit, Lyons Matrix Gallery, Austin, TX
Two Austin Connoisseurs Collect Texas Art, Scanlan Art Gallery, St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, Austin, TX
Finders/Keepers, The Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX (catalogue)
REAL(ist) WOMEN, Selby Gallery, Ringling School of Art and Design,
Sarasota, FL (catalogue)
New Works by Gallery Artists, Lyons Matrix Gallery, Austin, TX
Fresh Ink: Austin Print Workshops, Austin Museum of Art, Downtown,
Austin, TX
Animal Tales; Contemporary Bestiary and Animal Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Stanford, CT
The VIII Biennial Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition, Art Gallery, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Pinned To The Wall, Parchman Stremmel Galleries, San Antonio, TX
1996
Three Artist Exhibition: Melissa Miller, David Everett, Sally Chandler, Lyons Matrix Gallery, Austin, TX
Interplay: Celebrating the Poems of Pablo Neruda, Slover McCutcheon Gallery, Houston, TX
Link, Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, TX
Bucking the Texas Myth: Scouting the New Frontier, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Myths & Magical Fantasies, California Center for the Arts Museum, Escondido, CA
Establishments Exposed, Dallas Visual Arts Center, Dallas, TX
1995
Images of Nature III, Martin-Rathburn Gallery, San Antonio, TX
Link, Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, TX
Flatbed Press Group Exhibition, Rachel Harris Gallery, Fort Worth, TX
Texas Myths and Realities, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1994
Drawings, Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, TX
1993-94
The 43rd Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (catalogue)
1993
Animal Attraction, The Haggar University Gallery, University of Dallas, Dallas, TX
15th Anniversary Show, Austin Visual Artists Association, Gallery 201, Austin, TX
Lawndale Retrospective Exhibition: A Housewarming Event, Lawndale Art and Performance Center, Houston, TX
1992
Mind and Beast: Contemporary Artists and the Animal Kingdom,
traveling to Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; Canton Art Institute, Canton, OH; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN
100th Anniversary Prints, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX
Master Prints from the Rutgers Center for Innovative Printmaking: The First Five Years, The Gallery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, NJ, traveling to the Du Bois Gallery, Lehigh University, Lehigh, PA
44th Annual Academy-Institute Purchase Exhibition, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
1991
Group Exhibition, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY
1990
Baltimore Collects: Paintings and Sculpture Since 1960, Baltimore Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
Black & White, Linda Cathcart Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Drawings, Texas Gallery, Houston, TX
Feather, Fin & Fur, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX
42nd Annual Purchase Exhibition, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
Northwest x Southwest: Painted Fictions, Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA; traveling to Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, MT; Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA; Sarah Campbell Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Houston, TX