Melih Meric: Stitched Editions: Exploring the New
Category: Event Calendar
Date and Time
- Wed, Apr 3, 2024 - Sat, May 11, 2024 open Wed. - Sat. 11 am - 4 pm
Location
Akron Soul Train
191 S Main St
Details
Akron Soul Train Artist-in-Resident Melih Meric presents “Stitched Editions: Exploring the New,” an exhibit bursting with pattern and paper. Meric uses a traditional approach to their imagery through sacred geometry and explorations of Islamic geometric abstraction. Challenging traditional presentations of print editions, Meric’s print work crosses the borders of the paper. It highlights an expansion of patterns like Middle Eastern tiles. It also speaks to queerness without being explicitly queer. “Stitched Editions: Exploring the New'' poses integral questions surrounding erasure and identity in Middle Eastern communities. Meric’s craft lies in creating wall-hanging objects that play between the realms of dimensionality while still being unmistakably paper. Their work acknowledges and is proud of its dimension, speaking certain truths to multiple minority groups.
“My work deals with making peace with a part of my culture that drove me to leave it. Finding beauty in design and simplicity, then creating systems to complicate those principles. I fell in love with printmaking and the idea of multiplicity when I first made the connection to tiles from the Middle East. It suddenly became a tool to create and expand patterns that challenge traditions in crafts.” - Melih Meric
About the Artist Melih Meric:
Melih Meric (b. 1998, Istanbul) is a printmaker currently residing in Akron, Ohio. They explore a spiritual journey through Islamic geometric abstraction. Using printmaking as their main medium, they create works that talk about diaspora, assimilation, and Middle Eastern traditional practices. Their works combine traditional pattern-making and a contemporary way of creating editions. With a passion for pattern and paper, they use innovative methods of printmaking and textile arts to create stitched editions and embossed works on paper. They received their MFA in Print Media from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2023 and BA from Bennington College in Printmaking.
