EXHIBITIONS
ARTISTS
PUBLICATIONS
CONTACT
 
 
 

Mel Ramos

 
Biography

1935  

Born July 24th in Sacramento, California, USA.
1954-55   Sacramento Junior College, Sacramento, USA.
1955-56   San Jose State College, San Jose, USA.
1955   Marries Leta Helmers.
1957   BA Sacramento State College, Sacramento, USA.
1958   MA Sacramento State College, Sacramento, USA.
1963   First trip to Europe.
1966   Moves to Oakland, California, USA.
1967   Begins teaching at the California State University at Hayward, USA.
1972   Travels to Morocco, East Africa, Egypt and Spain. Buys a house in Cataluna, Spain, in the village of Horta de San Juan.
1986   Awarded the National Endowment for the Visual Artists Fellowship Grant and The United States/France Exchange Fellowship.
    Mel Ramos continues to live and work in Oakland, California and in Horta de San Juan, Spain.


Selected solo exhibitions

1964-65   Bianchini Gallery, New York, USA.
1965   David Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
1966   Galerie Ricke, Kassel, West Germany.
1967   San Francisco Museum of Art, USA.
1968   David Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
1971   Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich, Switzerland.
1972   Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, USA.
1974   Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, USA.
David Stuart Gallery, New York, USA.
1975   Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, West Germany.
1977   The Oakland Museum, USA.
1980   ‘A Twenty Year Survey’, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA.
1981   Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, USA.
Modernism, San Francisco, USA.
1985   ‘The Four Seasons’, Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, USA.
1986   ‘Early Paintings’, Galerie Tanja Grunert, Cologne, West Germany.
1987   Studio Trisorio, Naples, Italy.
1988   James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica, USA.
1989   ‘Beauty and the Beast’, Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, USA.
1991   ‘The Heroines of 1962-64’, Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, USA.
1994-95   ‘Retrospective’, Germany and Austria travelling exhibition to Kunstverein Lingen, Lingen; Mannheimer Kunstverein, Mannheim; Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel; to Vienna under title ‘Mel Ramos: Pop Art Images’, Hochscule für Angewandte Kunst in Wien, Vienna, Austria.
1997   'Chic Women’, Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
1999   ‘The Lost Paintings of 1965’, Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, USA.
1999-2000   Italy and Germany travelling exhibition to Galleria Civica di Modena, Palazzina Dei Giardini Corso Canalgrande, Modena, Italy; Kunsthaus Hannover, Hannover, Germany; Museum Moderner Kunst, Passau, Germany; Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Wilhelmshaven, Germany; Kunstforum Fränkisches Seeland, Gunzenhausen, Germany.
2001   ‘Neue Bilder’, Galerie Ernst Hilger, Vienna, Austria.
Palazzo dei Sette, Orvieto, Italy.
2002   ‘New Paintings & Works on Paper’, Modernism, San Francisco, USA.
2004   Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, USA.
2004-05   Robert Sandelson, London, England.
2007   'Mel Ramos', Stadtgalerie, Klagenfurt, Austria.
2007  

'Mel Ramos: Works from the 1960s', Robert Sandelson, London, England.


Selected group exhibitions

1963   ‘Pop Goes The Easel’, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, USA.
‘Pop Art USA’, Oakland Art Museum, USA.
‘Mixed Media and Pop Art’, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, USA.
‘The Popular Image’, ICA, London, England.
1964   ‘Current Painting and Sculpture in the Bay Area’, Stanford Museum, Stanford, USA.
1965   ‘Pop Art Nouveau Realisme, Etc’, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium.
‘Pop and the American Tradition’, Milwaukee Art Center, Wisconsin, USA.
1966-67   ‘11 Pop Artists’, travelling exhibition visiting, among others: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA; Baltimore Museum of Art, USA; Delgado Museum, New Orleans, USA; Columbus Museum, USA; High Museum, Atlanta, USA; Cincinnati Art Museum, USA; also Kassel, Hamburg, Berlin & Munich, Germany.
1969   ‘Pop Art Revisited’, Hayward Gallery, London, England.
‘Human Concern and Personal Torment’, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA.
1970   ‘Pop Prints’, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.
1973-78   ‘The Stuart M. Speiser Collection of Photo-Realism’; travelling exhibition through the USA, including Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA; Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, USA; University of Texas at Austin Art Museum, Austin, USA.
1974   ‘Pop Art’, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA.
1975   ‘The Great American Nude’, The New York Cultural Center, USA.
1978   ‘Art About Art’, travelling exhibition to, among others, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, USA;
1979   ‘Selections from the Frederick Weisman Collection of Californian Art’, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, USA.
1983   ‘The Comic Art Show’, Whitney Museum of American Art Downtown Branch, New York, USA.
‘Modern Nude Paintings: 1880-1980’, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan.
1985   ‘Pop Art 1955-70’, Australian travelling exhibition: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Queensland Art Gallery, Australia; National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.
‘Art in the San Francisco Bay Area 1945-1980’, The Oakland Museum, USA.
1991-93   ‘Pop Art’, travelling exhibition: Royal Academy of Arts, London, England; Museum Ludwig at Kunsthalle, Cologne, Germany; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Québec, Canada, catalogue (second catalogue with additions printed by Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, 1992).
1993   ‘Slittamenti’, Venice Biennale, Italy.
1998-99   American Pop Art’, Palazzo Ex Ospedale San Bartolomeo, Palermo, Sicily, Italy; The Pomotrice, Turin, Italy.
2002   ‘Pop Art: Mel Ramos-Allen Jones’, Kunsthalle Villa Kobe, Halle, Germany.
2003   ‘Splat, Boom, Pow: The Influence of Comics in Contemporary Art’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, USA.
2004-05   ‘An American Odyssey 1945-1980 (Debating Modernism)’, Spain travelling exhibition: Circulo de Belles Artes, Madrid; Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca; Kiosco Alfonso, A Coruña, Spain.