International Printmakers

MONIKA MELER Seeing art and life from both sides Monika Meler’s diffused relief prints explore memory. Hung in space rather than against a wall, light emanates through—literally illuminating honeycombed and web-like structures amidst rich fields of color. The repeating motifs, printed in layers, change direction and mimic memory. Her work, says arts writer Steve Brisendine, is to be “looked into rather than at. Seeing life from both sides is an integral part of Meler's own narrative as well as her art.”

Viewed from two perspectives, Meler’s work speaks provocatively from one who has experienced both Eastern European and Western culture. Born in Poland, Meler immigrated to the US with her parents at age ten taking with her a “still picture of the place I considered home. Upon returning, I expected everything to resemble that still picture, [but] nothing was the same. I was a foreigner in this land that I belonged to, and realized that the immigrant journey is much more emotional than physical. Confused and torn, I turned my nostalgia and longing ... into a reality” through art.

Meler earned a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and continued studies at Purdue University, where she earned an MA, followed by an MFA from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University. While at Tyler, she spent a year studying in Rome, Italy. She has held residencies at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Connecticut, the Frans Masereel Center in Belgium, the Cork Printmakers in Ireland and the Women's Studio Workshop in New York. Currently, Meler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Arts, College of the Pacific, in Stockton, California.