biography

Scraps of found paper covered in writing, numbers, mathematical and chemical formulae, geometric shapes, musical scores, and sticky tape... The density of script layered on Melvin Way's graceful works gives them a rare magnetism. They reflect his obsession with space and time, while his equations seem intended to calculate the channels between the two; they act as a path of enfranchisement, abolishing the place assigned to us by time and space, thereby opening new vistas to the artist, who sometimes signs his works Melvin "Milky" Way.
Melvin was born in South Carolina and brought up by relatives in Brooklyn. He was fascinated by science at high school, where he also played bass and sang in a group. He was a student at the Technical Career Institute when he developed symptoms of mental illness that worsened over time. His girlfriend at the time was also struggling with drug addiction. He decided to become a musician before eventually finding himself homeless on Wards Island. The artist Andrew Castrucci came across Melvin's drawings in a homeless drop-in centre in the mid-1980s and set up an exhibition to showcase them. Melvin used a ball-point pen to draw on scraps of paper, scribbling countless signs, forms, and mysterious formulae, some gleaned from books, their secret known to no-one but him. He spends weeks, even months, working on his drawings, keeping them in his pocket or between the leaves of a book, and returning to work on them years later. Melvin Way's art has been admired by eminent critics such as Jerry Saltz, who described him as "a mystic visionary genius".

selective exhibitions

"brut now: l'art brut au temps des technologies" from October 29th to January 16th, 2017, Musées de Belfort, Belfort. curator Christian Berst; associated curator Brut pop.

"Cracking the code", Appleton Square, from October 7th to November 3rd 2016, Lisboa, Portugal.

"Art Brut: a history of individual mythologies", from June 18th to February 26th, 2017 curator: Christian Berst, Oliva Creative Factory, Sao Joao da Madeira.

"melvin way | a vortex symphony", from May 26 th to July 16th, 2016 christian berst art brut gallery, Paris.

"Créer c'est résister", exposition collective à la bibliothèque de Lyon, du 8 octobre 2015 au 9 janvier 2016, sous le commissariat de Thaïva Ouaki.

"preTENse", from september 12th to october 10th 2016, collective exhibition at christian berst art brut gallery, Paris.

"melvin way, gaga city",  from june 7th to july 19th 2015, christian berst art brut gallery, New York.

"Art brut live", from march 27th to august 17th 2015 DOX Center for contemporary art, Prague.

"le mur, oeuvres de la collection Antoine de Galbert", from june 14th to september 21st 2014, La Maison rouge, Paris.

"Alternative Guide To The Universe", from June 11st to August 26th 2013, collective exhibition, Hayward Gallery, London.

"Farfetched: Mad Science, Fringe Architecture and Visionary Engineering", from January 17th to April 26th 2013, Gregg Museum of Art and Design, Raleigh (North Carolina).

"Towards a Warm Math, On Stellar Rays", 2012, New York.

Salon du dessin contemporain - Drawing now 2012, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris.

"rentrée hors les normes 2011, découvertes & nouvelles acquisitions", from September 10th to 28th, christian berst art brut gallery, Paris. 

"Approaching Abstraction", American Folk Art Museum, New York, from October 6th to September 12th, 2010.

"Cryptic Communications, Transformer", 2004, Washington, D.C.

"Art's Mouth",  from May 16th to June 29th, 1991, curated by Connie Butler, Artists Space, New York.

selective bibliography

exhibition's catalog brut now: l'art brut au temps des technologies, ed. les presses du réel, Musées de Belfort, Belfort, 2017.

exhibition's catalog, « melvin way, a vortex symphony », christian berst art brut, Paris,  2016.

exhibition's catalog, « Art brut live », DOX Centre for contemporary art, Prague, 2015

exhibition's catalog, « melvin way, gaga city », christian berst art brut, New York, 2015.

Art brut, collection abcd/Bruno decharme, Paris, Flammarion, 2014

exhibition catalog, « Art brut collection abcd/Bruno Decharme », Paris, La maison rouge, 2014

exhibition's catalog, « Le mur, oeuvres de la collection Antoine de Galbert », Paris, La maison rouge, 2014

exhibition, Hayward Publishing, The alternative guide to the universe, Ralph Rugolf, London, 2013.

exhibition catalogue, « Everything # 4 », London, The museum of everything, 2011

exhibition's catalog, « Rentrée hors-les-normes, découvertes & nouvelles acquisitions 2011 », Paris, galerie christian berst art brut, 2011

Mari Sabatino, “Melvin way, the man, the pen and the moon”, in Fluence mars-avril 2011.

Charley n°5, Dijon, Les Presses du réel, 2007.

Lyle Rexer, How to Look at Outsider Art, New York, Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 2005.

Eleanor Munro, « Where Postmodern Art and Schizophrenia Intersect », New York Times, 31 mars, 2002.

Allen S. Weiss, "Algebra Is Drunkenness", New York, Cabinet Magazine, Fall 2002.

N. F. Karlins, “Melvin “Milky” Way”, Raw Vision n°34, spring 2001.

catalogue

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