Alexander Melamid

{{Short description|Russian-American artist}} {{notability|bio|date=October 2018}} '''Alexander Melamid''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɛ|l|ə|m|ɪ|d}};<ref>{{YouTube|id=zUQe7nniiIo|Old Masters: Art Spiegelman, Jules Feiffer, Alex Melamid|time=4m00s}}</ref> {{langx|ru|Алекса́ндр Дани́лович Мелами́д}};<ref>Vitaly S. Gribkov, Параллельная культура: интегративное направление в современной российской культуре (Смысл, 1999), p. 62.</ref> born July 14, 1945) is a Russian-born conceptualist and performance artist.

==Biography== Melamid was born into a Jewish family of {{Interlanguage link|Daniel Melamid|ru|Меламид, Даниил Ефимович}}, a Soviet historian living in Moscow. In his early life, he attended the Stroganov Art Institute, where he collaborated with Vitaly Komar in the Russian Sots art movement (a parallel to the Western pop art movement). Known as a cynical Social Realist, Melamid began collaborating with Komar in the late 1960s; the two emigrated together to New York City from the Soviet Union in 1977.<ref>Adam Gopnik, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1989/04/24/1989_04_24_032_TNY_CARDS_000350513 Bayonne]," ''New Yorker'', April 4, 1989.</ref> The duo created collaborative works as "Komar and Melamid". In 2003, the two artists decided to go their separate ways. Around this time, Melamid's first-born son, Dan, introduced him to the world of hip-hop, which included his clients and close friends Whoo Kid and 50 Cent. Melamid was intrigued by hip-hop society because of its rich history and world appeal, and began to paint the hip-hop portraits that have become his first solo exhibition since splitting with Komar, on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}}

Alexander is currently working in Chelsea, NYC at his Art Healing Ministry.<ref>{{cite web |title=Can a Picasso Cure You? (Published 2011) |website=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107075128/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/arts/design/alexander-melamids-art-healing-ministry-in-soho.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date=2017-01-07 |url-status=live |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/arts/design/alexander-melamids-art-healing-ministry-in-soho.html?pagewanted=all}}</ref> Recent new series of works include "Heaven and Hell"<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://artamalgamated.com/alex-melamid.html |title=Heaven and hell |access-date=2014-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912204755/http://artamalgamated.com/alex-melamid.html |archive-date=2014-09-12 |url-status = dead}}</ref> and "The Art of Plumbing."<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/garden/who-needs-art-theres-plumbing.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%221%22%3A%22RI%3A10%22%7 The Art of Plumbing]</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

==Sources== * [https://archive.today/20130415110432/http://www.mocadetroit.org/exhibitions/melamid.html "HOLY HIP-HOP!" Museum of Contemporary Art. 20 Aug. 2008]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melamid, Alexander}} Category:1945 births Category:Artists from Moscow Category:Russian performance artists Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Social realist artists Category:Living people Category:20th-century Russian painters Category:Russian male painters Category:Russian contemporary artists Category:American male painters Category:American contemporary painters Category:20th-century Russian male artists Category:Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry alumni