Room 130, Kane Hall
Wednesday, 02 April 2014, 6:30pm
Doors will open at 6pm
RSVP using Register button here
The Division of Art is honored to host Mel Chin, an internationally known artist who insinuates art into unlikely places, including destroyed homes, toxic landfills, and even popular television, investigating how art can provoke greater social awareness and responsibility. Below is a brief biography of Chin, and you may learn more about him on his website.
Please note: This event is free and open to all, but we are asking people to RSVP using the Register button at this page. Seating priority will be given to those who RSVP.
Artist Biography
Mel Chin was born in Houston, Texas and began making art at an early age. He is known for the broad range of approaches in his art, including works that require multi-disciplinary, collaborative teamwork and works that conjoin cross-cultural aesthetics with complex ideas. He developed Revival Field (1989-ongoing), a project that pioneered the field of “green remediation,” the use of plants to remove toxic, heavy metals from the soil. A current project, Fundred Dollar Bill/Operation Paydirt, focuses on national prevention of childhood lead-poisoning. Mel is also well known for his iconic sculptures, works that often address the importance of memory and collective identity, and for inserting art into unlikely places, including destroyed homes, toxic landfills, and even popular television, investigating how art can provoke greater social awareness and responsibility. His work is exhibited extensively in the U.S. and abroad and was documented in the popular PBS program, Art 21: Art of the 21st Century. His proposal for a New World Trade Center was part of the American representation at the 2002 Venice Biennale of Architecture. Mel is the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including four honorary doctorates. A monograph of the installation, The Funk & Wag from A to Z, is being published by the Menil Collection and distributed by Yale Unversity press in spring 2014, and a traveling retrospective exhibition of his work, titled ReMatch, will open at the New Orleans Museum of Art in February 2014.