rip melvin way (1954 – 2024)
We are saddened to share the news that visionary artist Melvin Way passed away early yesterday morning, February 4th. Exhibited in 2016 at the gallery, we dedicated a monographic catalog to him on this occasion. Discovered in the early 1980s at a homeless center in New York City, Melvin Way is now a key figure in contemporary art brut. Having interrupted his scientific studies because of his schizophrenia, he relentlessly covers fragments of papers of mathematical and chemical formulas, sibylline sketches… These dense talismanic notes, which he treasures in his pockets, exhale a rare magnetism.
Way’s work is included in many private and public collections including the American Folk Art Museum, New York; the American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne. Group exhibitions include among many others the American Folk Art Museum, The Hayward Gallery, London, la maison rouge, Paris, and international art fairs including the Outsider Art Fair and Art Basel Miami Beach. In 2016, Way earned the Wyn Newhouse Award that recognizes excellence in the achievements of artists with disabilities.
Discovered in the early 1980s at a homeless center in New York City, Melvin Way is now a key figure in contemporary art brut. Having interrupted his scientific studies because of his schizophrenia, he relentlessly covers fragments of papers of mathematical and chemical formulas, sibylline sketches… These dense talismanic notes, which he treasures in his pockets, exhale a rare magnetism. The 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Critics, Jerry Saltz, considers him “a mystic visionary genius, one of the greatest living American artists.” The artist’s works are now in the collections of the MoMA (New York) and the Smithsonian (Washington).