Mimlitsch-Gray was born inCamden, New Jersey in 1962, the daughter of Paul Joseph Mimlitsch and Myra Elizabeth Buck.[1] She was first introduced to metalsmithing and jewelry in high school[2] when she participated in a summer program atCarnegie Mellon University.[3] Mimlitsch-Gray went on to receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts from thePhiladelphia College of Art (nowUniversity of the Arts) in 1984 where she studied with Sharon Church and majored in Metals and Jewelry. Afterwards, Mimlitsch-Gray attendedCranbrook Academy of Art where she studied with Gary Griffin, and received her Masters of Fine Art in Metalsmithing in 1986.[4]
Mimlitsch-Gray has received awards for her work and contributions to the metalsmithing community, including election to the 2016 College of American Craft Fellows by theAmerican Craft Council, and being named a Master Metalsmith by the Metal Museum.
In 1998,SUNY New Paltz recognized Mimlitsch-Gray's educational impact, awarding her the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.[9] In 2018, Mimlitsch-Gray received another Chancellor's Award of Excellence fromSUNY New Paltz for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Studies.[10]
She has received fellowships from public and private institutions. In 1995 she was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowships from theLouis Comfort Tiffany Foundation;[11] in 2012 she received the United States Artists Glasgow Fellowship in Craft and Traditional Arts;[12] and in 1997, 2012, and again in 2015 she received fellowships from theNew York Foundation for the Arts.[13]
Over Mimlitsch-Gray's career, overarching themes of objecthood, labor, value, and utility have emerged. Of her own work, she has written:
I produce objects as portraits and social indicators. By implying or impeding function I reinterpret utility as a critical strategy. I create wares that are both present and representational, embodying the specifics while also portraying variant roles and circumstances. Deliberately tentative, this work investigates facture, explores gesture and embodies utilitarian notions.[14]
In her seriesBisections, Encasements, Mimlitsch-Gray plays with the history ofdecorative objects and our modern relationship to them. Rather than make achalice,candlestick, or other item common to traditional silversmithing orhollowware, Mimlitsch-Gray creates negative impressions of these objects which are split into two equal halves and embedded in wooden or metal block forms inspired by shaker design.[15] Stripped of their functionality, these pieces transcend their objecthood to begin functioning as images signifying the shifting cultural attitude towards these types of traditional objects and traditional forms of making.[16] Art HistorianJenni Sorkin wrote, "The imprint of the object is memorialized as an indexical relationship to its usage, its impression a permanent rendering while simultaneously documenting the form’s disappearance… In Mimlitsch-Gray'sBisections/Encasements, the objects are perfect specimens of a past that has been deconstructed, a mediation on the disappearance of skilled labor, and the illusory quality of the objects it produced."[15]Sugar Bowl and Creamer III from this series is held in the permanent collection of theRenwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.[17]
Magnification challenges the sentimental ideas of the "hand made" and its signifiers. The series consists of eleven metal serving trays[18] that all feature exaggerated surfaces which render the trays largely dysfunctional. The design of these surfaces replicates a traditionalplanished (fine-hammered) surface that is common incopperware, but inMagnification these hammer marks are magnified approximately 500 times.[19] Particularly in the 19th century, rough hand-hammered textures were often purposely left on objects to signify that they were hand-made and imply a greater value than their machine-made counterparts.[20] Mimlitsch-Gray plays with this history, and the exaggerated hammer marks inMagnification act as a fetishized signifier of labor and its perceived virtue.[18]Handwrought Brass Tray from this series is held in the permanent collection of theMint Museum of Craft & Design,[20]Pitcher is held in the permanent collection of theRacine Art Museum, andHandwrought Copper Tray is held in the permanent collection of theCranbrook Art Museum.[18]
Made during her residency at theJohn Michael Kohler Arts Center in 2007, Mimlitsch-Gray’s seriesKohler Skillets and Pone Pans playfully explores the familiarity of thecast-iron skillet and juxtaposes it with themes ofglobalization,genetic modification, and mid-western food culture.[21]Kohler Skillets and Pone Pans consists of a series of cast-iron pans (with the exception of one that is chromed brass) that are elongated, bent, melted, or house molds for food that would never fit.[22] Though a master metalsmith, most of Mimlitsch-Gray's previous experience had been with small metals like silver, copper, and brass. Working with cast iron during her Kohler residency was outside her comfort zone and was "...just the disruption she needed. 'I had really run aground,' she says; her mastery of hollowware had become a crutch. 'I really needed to find a new way of working, to put myself in the position of a novice.'"[23]Freestanding Skillet from this series is held in the permanent collection ofKohler Company, andSilver Anniversary is held in the permanent collection of theJohn Michael Kohler Arts Center.[24]
In her seriesMelting Silver, silver objects appear to be caught mid-transformation: highly decorated traditional objects drip and melt into reflective silver puddles. In part, this transformation is anthropomorphic; Mimlitsch-Gray describes them as "contingent, reflecting the anxiety of service",[25] but these objects also highlight the very nature of the material itself as one that is easily recyclable through melting and re-rendering.Candelabrum: Seven Fragments from this series is held in the permanent collection ofCranbrook Art Museum,[26]Melting Candelabrum is held in the permanent collection of Rotasa Trust Collection,Melting Teapot is held in the permanent collection of theMuseum of Arts and Design,[27]Melting Sticks is held in the permanent collection of theNational Museums of Scotland,[28] andRCA Study Piece is held in the permanent collection of theVictoria and Albert Museum.[29]
Mimlitsch-Gray’s seriesSomething For the Table provides "tentative"[30] possibilities of what a utilitarian object could be if stripped of historical reference in form and decoration.Jenni Sorkin describes: “Deftly avoiding traditional forms, Mimlitsch-Gray embraces formless objects without prescriptive usages… By and large, the works in this series stage the sensuality of fullness: they read as almost pillowy, a perfect trompe l'oeil in which the illusion of lightness is offset by metalwork’s material thud."[31]Split Slab, 2012, from this series was acquired by theMuseum of Fine Arts Houston in 2017.[32] Cindi Strauss, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Decorative Arts and Design and Anna Walker, the Windgate Foundation Curatorial Fellow for Contemporary Craft at The Museum of Fine Arts Houston writes, "We are pleased to acquire Myra Mimlitsch-Gray'sSplit Slab.... In her reimagining of a serving form, Mimlitsch-Gray upends traditional forms in addition to highlighting silver's fluid properties with exceptional craftsmanship."[33]
Mimlitsch-Gray's most recent seriesStudies in Enamelware exploresvitreous andporcelain enamel on steel forms. This industrial form of enameling first caught Mimlitsch-Gray's interest during her residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, but due to the short nature of the Kohler residency (three months long) it wasn't possible to explore while there.[21] InStudies in Enamelware Mimlitsch-Gray references and abstracts traditionalenamelware forms, like the quintessential rolled lip, to explore themes of utilitarian value. She explains, "…it’s sort of like a forced commonality that I’m interested in bringing to the work. So we see that I'm not that motivated by the preciousness conversation right now."[34]
2002Innovative Tools for Personal Use, Center for Visual Arts, Denver, Colorado
200121st Century Metalsmiths, Newtown Art Center, Newtown, Massachusetts
2001A View by Two: International Contemporary Jewelry, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
2000Women Designers in the USA, 1900 – 2000; Diversity and Difference, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture, New York, New York
1992Form and Object: Contemporary Interpretations of Craft Traditions, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, Wyoming. Dahl Fine Arts Center, Rapid City, South Dakota. Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada, Colorado
1992Borne with a Silver Spoon,National Ornamental Metal Museum, Memphis, Tennessee. Aaron Faber Gallery, New York, New York. Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, Michigan. The Hand and the Spirit, Scottsdale, Arizona. Katie Gingrass Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. New Art Forms Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. Concepts Gallery, Carmel, California. Skidmore College Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York
1992Silver: New Forms and Expressions III, Fortunoff, New York, New York.National Ornamental Metal Museum, Memphis, Tennessee. Union Gallery, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, Mississippi
1991Copper III, Old Pueblo Museum, Tucson, Arizona
1991The 31st Annual Mid-States Crafts Exhibition, Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, Evansville, Indiana
1990Art and Ideology: The Social Function of Craft, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, Michigan
1990Metals Now, Downey Museum of Art, Downey, California
