Description
53rd Annual Mark Twain Library Art Show
Artist’s Bio:
Marc Mellon – Works in Bronze
Marc Mellon is one of America’s premier representational sculptors and medalists in bronze. His palette includes a mastery of artistic anatomy, a unique ability to portray balance, gesture, and movement, and a broadly informed design sense. His portrait busts all project nuanced likenesses, and unfailingly project the quintessential qualities of his subjects. whether as busts, reliefs, full figures, or full statues.
The artist, born in 1951, left a pre-medical path to study history and philosophy, and ultimately art. “Working with the human figure,” says Mellon “provides me with the opportunity of working with achievers in every field – world leaders, visionary businessmen, educators and philanthropists, acclaimed dancers and choreographers, sports world icons, medical pioneers, and other giants in the world of the arts and letters. Each work presents another opportunity to project the values of the individuals I seek to honor, and has always been a personal exploration of what makes for an engaged meaningful life.”
Mellon’s commissioned projects include bronze busts of President George H.W. Bush (collection of the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution), Pope John Paul II (the Papal Apartments, The Vatican), President Lee Teng-Hui of Taiwan, iconic entertainer Tony Bennett, esteemed writer and journalist Tom Wolfe, Academy-Award winning actress Patricia Neal, and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. His monumental statues of Dr. Alton Ochsner (New Orleans) and George Eastman (University of Rochester, NY) have become beloved local landmarks.
Mellon was the sculptor of Barack Obama’s portrait for the historic 2009 Official Presidential Inaugural Medal (Collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum). His medallic work also includes From the Artist’s Studio to Nature’s Gallery for Brookgreen Gardens (2002) and the Walt Whitman Centennial Medal for the Grolier Club (2019). His credits include Master Sculptor in Residence at Brookgreen Gardens (2009) and at Chesterwood National Trust Historic Site (2012).
The artist’s limited edition dance bronzes have been exhibited from New York to Tokyo. They capture and project the unique strength and beauty of modern dance and contemporary ballet, a series begun in 1980. In recent years, Mellon has developed a series of balletic bronzes in collaboration with the elite dancers of American Ballet Theatre. Mellon has also created some of America’s best known sports sculptures for the NBA, WNBA, and the NCAA, including The NBA MVP Trophy, hoisted aloft over the years by a host of legendary athletes including Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Lebron James, and Steph Curry, The WNBA MVP, and the Dave Rimington Trophy aka The College Football Center of the Year.
Mellon regularly serves as a juror for national sculpture exhibitions, and has received numerous awards, including honors from The National Sculpture Society, The National Arts Club, The Salmagundi Club, and Allied Artists of America. He is an elected National Sculpture Society Fellow, elected artist member of the Century Association, and on the Board of Advisers and President ex-Officio of the Artists’ Fellowship Inc., a foundation assisting artists in times of emergency. Mellon and his wife, fellow noted sculptor Babette Bloch, were each honored in 2018 at The Artists’ Fellowship Annual Awards Dinner, receiving the Benjamin West Clinedinst Memorial Medal, presented for the achievement of exceptional artistic merit.
Mellon’s over life-size statue of Jackie Robinson and George Shuba, celebrating the 75th anniversary or the first interracial handshake in big league baseball, was unveiled July 17, 2021 in Youngstown, Ohio. A retrospective of Mellon’s and Babette Bloch’s sculptures were exhibited at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina in May 2022. Fifty-year retrospective exhibits are in planning for 2026 and 2027.
The artist’s bronze portrait of dancer, choreographer and educator Jacques d’Amboise was unveiled at the National Dance Institute in Manhattan in 2023. His 2023 bust of Volodymyr Zelensky is currently on exhibit at the Century Association. In-process busts include portraits of Henry Louis Gates Jr, jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Robert Oppenheimer.
