Met the Artist: Mel Watkin

This show includes work from various exhibitions that date from 2006 to 2025. While the works may seem vastly different, they are tied together by two things. First, they are all drawings. In essence, my work is about the process of drawing and has varied from artist’s books to works on paper and large-scale drawing installations. Also, I have long worked on surfaces other than plain paper. Surfaces that come with embedded histories such as graph paper, old road maps, lace, pillowcases, and security paper. Second, except for two map pieces, these works all involve trees and my natural surroundings. Living in Cobden, surrounded by the Shawnee National Forest, plays a major role in my work. BRIEF BIO My work has been shown nationally with solo exhibitions at Franklin Furnace Archives, New York; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis; and A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn. Recent group exhibitions include the American University Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan; the Saint Louis Art Museum; and Longue Vue House and Garden, New Orleans. The work can be found in the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Spencer Museum in Lawrence, Kansas, Franklin Furnace Archives, and the Book Art Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among other institutions. A permanent public artwork fabricated in collaboration with Franz Mayer of Munich, Germany, can be viewed on the “C” Concourse at St. Louis International Airport. Grant awards include a 2024 Franklin Furnace/Xeno Prize, a 2025 Illinois Arts Council Creative Projects grant, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship, and a Pyramid Atlantic artist’s book award. Residencies include the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming; Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, Illinois; and Nocefresca, Sardinia, Italy. My BA is from Bennington College in Vermont (1977), and I completed my MFA at the University of Montana at Missoula (1981).