Melissa Shook American, 1939-2020

1939

Born in New York, NY

1979-2005

Associate Professor, Art Department, University of Massachusetts Boston, MA (Continued teaching photography part-time through 2012)

1974 -1977

Creative Photography Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, MA

2020

Died in Chelsea, MA

2022

Melissa Shook: Early Self-Portraits 1972-1973, Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, New York, NY

2022

Melissa Shook: Inside & Out, University Hall Gallery, Walter Grossman Memorial Gallery at the Healey Library, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA

2019

Clutter and There’s no reason to think…, Atlantic Works Gallery, Boston, MA

2017

Daily Self-Portraits by Melissa Shook, Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, CA

1995

Aging, The Trustman Art Gallery, Simmons College, Boston, MA

1995

Streets Are For Nobody: Photographs and Excerpted Interviews of Homeless Women In Boston, Cleveland and Tucson, Towne Art Gallery, Wheelock College, Boston, MA

1993

Streets Are For Nobody, Metroland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH; Mandel School for Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve, Cleveland, OH; Ohio University, Lancaster, OH; Hamilton Williams Campus Center, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH; The Ocasek Building Atrium, Akron, OH; Lorain County Community College, Elyria, OH

1992

Streets Are For Nobody, Mather Gallery, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH

1991

Streets Are For Nobody, Homeless Women Speak, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA

1990

1701 James Street, Onondaga County Public Library, Syracuse, NY

1989

1701 James Street, Mather Gallery, Case Western Reserve, Cleveland, OH

1986

Krissy, Work Space Gallery, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

1984

Melissa Shook, Silver Bullet Gallery, Providence, RI

1978

Krissy, Foto Gallery, New York, NY

1976

Krissy, MIT Creative Photography Gallery, Cambridge, MA

1975

Daily Self-Portraits, Photographs and Drawings, MIT Creative Photography Gallery, Cambridge, MA

1975

Melissa Shook (daily self-portraits), Foto Gallery, New York, NY

2023

Title TBD, Patinoire Royale | Galerie Valérie Bach, Brussels, Belgium

2023

Drawing to the Light: 50 Years of Photography at Maine Media Workshops + College, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME

2012-2013

An Elevated View: The Orange Line, Wiggin Gallery, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA

2010

Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

2010

Ater Till Verkligheten, Arbetets museum, Norrkoping, Sweden

2009

Reality Revisited: Photography from the Moderna Museet Collection, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

2009

Taking a Different Tack: Maggie Sherwood and the Floating Foundation of Photography, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, State University of New York, New Paltz, NY

2005

Essex Art Center Annual Juried Show, Essex Center, Lawrence, MA. (Showed 80 clay small clay nude female figures from “Clay,” with a grid of digitally printed self-portraits.) Won one of six juror prizes judged by Howard Yeserski

2002

Show: The Flag, Armory Northwest Gallery, Pasadena, CA. (A grid of five digitally printed images from each of the eight members of www.umb.edu/flaggingspirits)

2002

6 months/a memorial, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA. (A web-based collective response to 9/11, a project started by Sally Stein and Melissa Shook

1997

Making Pictures: Women and Photography, 1975 - Now, In dialogue: New England Women and Photography, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA

1994

Time Recorded: Reflections on Aging, Spaces, Cleveland, OH

1994

View From a Small Opening: An exhibition of contemporary pinhole photographs, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI

1993

Family Matters: An Exhibition of Works by Sally Mann, Vince Leo, Melissa Shook and Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Northlight Gallery, School of Art, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (catalog)           

1993

Melissa Shook, Peter Smith, Joseph Rodriguez, The Department of Photography, Tisch School of Arts, New York University

1992

Anxious Art, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA

1990

Seven Photographers on Transportation, State Transportation Building, Boston, MA (catalog)

1987

Along the El, (The Orange Line Project), State Transportation Building, Boston, MA; The Boston Public Library, Boston, MA

1985

A Human Portrait: Five Contemporary American Photographers, Shelby Lee Adams, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Mark Goodman, Ken Light and Melissa Shook, Zoller Gallery, Penn State School of Visual Arts, Penn State University, State College, PA

1984

Twelve on 20x24, (Premier installation of touring exhibition of 20x24 Polaroid photographs, program coordinated by the Museum School Gallery), Boston, MA (catalog)

1984

Massachusetts Photographers: 1984, (Exhibition of 33 photographers sponsored by The Cambridge Arts Council), Federal Reserve Bank Gallery, Cambridge, MA

1981

Se dig om i gladge, (Look Back in Joy: Six Photographers, Six Temperaments), Fotografiska Museet, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (catalog)

1979

A Photographic Exhibition by The Four Faculty Members of The MIT Creative Photography Laboratory, MIT Creative Photography Gallery, Cambridge, MA, MA

1978

Tusen och en bild (Thousand and One Image), Fotografiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

1976

Photography: Recent Acquisitions 1974-1976, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

1975

Hollis Frampton, Nostalgia; Robert Hout, Diary Paintings; Melissa Shook, Daily Self-Portraits, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY

1972

Three-Person Show, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY

2012

LCC Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant, Chelsea, MA

2011

LCC Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant and a Chelsea Community Fund Grant, Chelsea, MA

1990

MassProductions Grant

1988

Massachusetts Council Community Grant

1988

Massachusetts Lottery Grant

1985

National Endowment of the Arts Visual Fellowship

1984

The Museum School/Polaroid Foundation.

1981-1999

Various grants from the University of Massachusetts, Harbor Campus, Boston, MA

1981

Swedish Government Travel Grant (for lecture, "Mote med Fotografi," at Fotografiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden)

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France

Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY, USA

Cincinnati Art Museum, OH, USA

Federation for Community Planning, Cleveland, OH, USA

Fotografiska Museet, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

Harvard Art Museums, MA, USA

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, NH, USA

Lawrence History Center, Lawrence, MA, USA

Light Work, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA

Médiathèque Benjamin-Rabier, La Roche-sur-Yon Agglomération, France

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME, USA

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, USA

2014

“He Says, She Says, I Say, and Nobody Tells the Truth, Whatever That Is, on the Backside of Suffolk Downs,” a narrative by Melissa Shook, Turning Point

2012

“My Suffolk Downs,” 30 poems and 19 black and white photographs, Pressed Wafer and Kat Ran Press, Boston, MA

2010

“The Real Story,” a chapbook, 28 poems, Finishing Line Press, Georgetown, KY

2010

“Magritte’s Rider,” a chapbook, 30 poems, Pudding House Press Chapbook Series, Columbus, OH

2010

“Near,” Ellen La Forge Memorial Poetry Foundation: honorable mention, Boston, MA

2004

“The Real Story,” Family Reunion, Poems about Parenting Grown Children, Chickory, Blue Press

1992

Excerpted Interviews from Streets Are For Nobody, Special Issue Homelessness: New England and Beyond, New England Journal of Public Policy, McCormack Institute of Public Affairs, University of Massachusetts Boston, Spring/Summer 1992

1989

“On Photographing the Homeless, II,” Art and Artists, Volume 17, Number 6, Dec.1988/Jan.1989, The Foundation for the Community of Artist, New York, NY, 1989, pages 101-104

1983

“A Conversation with Roy DeCarava,” Views: The Journal of Photography in New England, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA, volume 4, Number 2, 1983, pages 9-13

1981

“Disturbances: Callahan in Black-and-White and Color,“Camera Arts, New York, NY, May/June 1981

1981

“Krissy's Xmas Present, Text and photographs by Melissa Shook,” Camera Arts, New York, NY, Jan/Feb 1981, pages 22-25 & 118

1979

“Harry Callahan, Interviewed by Melissa Shook,” Picture Magazine, Los Angeles, CA, Issue #12, June/July 1979

1977

“Callahan, Interviewed by Melissa Shook,” Photograph, New York, NY, Volume 1, No. 4, 1977, pages 1-4 & 37

1975

“Consciousness Rising,” Camera 35, New York, NY, 1975

1974

“Personal Politics,” Camera 35, New York, NY, January 1974

2009

Taking a Different Tack: Maggie Sherwood and the Floating Foundation of Photography (exhibition catalog), Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, State University of New York, New Paltz, NY, pages 58-59

1993

Family Matters: An Exhibition of Works by Sally Mann, Vince Leo, Melissa Shook and Philip-Lorca diCorcia (exhibition catalog), Northlight Gallery, School of Art, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, pages 11, 19 & 23

1992

“Bleeding Heart and Three Stones,” 8x10 pinhole photograph, 1992. (with text), Pinhole Journal, Contemporary Images, Vol. 10 #1, Pinhole Resource, San Lorenzo, New Mexico, pages 6-7

1985

Family: Tradition/Transition, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minnesota (exhibition catalog)

1983

“A Special Bond,” Documentary Photography (Revised Edition), Life Library of Photography, Alexandria, VA, 1983, pages 216-219

1983

Ameriskanskt, Bild, Nr. 2/83, Fotograficentrum, Stockholm, Sweden, pages 24-29

1981

Se dig om i gladge (exhibition catalog), Fotografiska Museet, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, pages 51-62

1980

“Krissy Portraits,” Creative Camera, January 1980, No.187. London, England, cover & pages 20-25

1975

“A Childhood Lost to Amnesia,” chapter 4 “The Mystery of Memory” (photographs from Port Washington Series), The Role of the Brain, Time-Life Books, Human Behavior, New York, NY, 1975, pages 101-107

1974

“Melissa Shook,” Creative Camera, London, England, November 1974

1974

“In Search of Melissa,” U.S. Camera/Camera 35 Annual (Personal Pictures issue), 1974, New York, NY, pages 140-159

2022

“Melissa Shook: Early Self-Portraits 1972-1973@ Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery”(exhibition review) by Loring Knoblauch, Collector Daily, October 5, 2022”

2022

“Melissa Shook: Early Self-Portraits 1972-1973 / Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery”(exhibition review) by Elyssa Goodman, Photograph, September 29, 2022

1975

“One Woman Focuses on Herself” (exhibition review) by Owen Edwards, Village Voice, Oct. 12, 1975, page 109

2014

www.pennyanteproductions.com, a website devoted to interviews by folks who work on the backside of Suffolk Downs, 2006-2014

2014

www.briarhillthoroughbreds.com, an interactive documentary about George Brown’s Thoroughbred breeding farm in Rohoboth, MA

2013

“Jimmy Sullivan – and that, too,” a video about Jimmy Sullivan’srecovery from profound memory loss after he was gay bashed in the early 1980s when he was a transvestite drug using and selling prostitute and his subsequent long and difficult recovery from almost all of his additions

2011

“Kemper and Me,” a video in which two seventy-year-olds, Kemper and me talk about our different memories, experiences, needs when I had an abortion before Roe v Wade and we were briefly married

2008

“Identity, Have Some,” Improvisations by Kristina Shook, concerning assumptions about ethnic identity

2007

“How to Fight, a portrait of Joyce Watson,” trt:47:33 A video about my friend from Guyana who worked three somewhat menial jobs to support her son and daughter and lived in a superintendent’s apartment in a wealthy section of Greenwich Village. Topics: race, education, expectations for children, money and class

1997-2002

Board Member and President of the Homeless Empowerment Project, Chair, Editorial Committee. Writer, Photographer for SpareChange, a street newspaper.

1991

“Homeless Women Speak,” a forum with formerly homeless women as primary speakers, organized in conjunction with "Streets Are For Nobody, Homeless Women Speak" exhibition, Boston Center for the Arts, May 4, 1991. To encourage women who have had the experience of being homeless to help define the content of the roundtable discussions and become the experts who would speak from experience. Extensively funded.

1988-1989

“1701 James Street” an exhibition traveled to branches of the Cuyahoga County Library, sponsored by the Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Retardation and the Federation for Community Planning (January 1988 - July 1988) toured through Ohio sponsored by Ohio Public Images and the George Gund Foundation.

1987

“The Artist's Lens: A Focus on Relocation,”a two-year project sponsored by UrbanArts documenting the elevated Orange Line subway in the southwest corridor of Boston. Five photographers worked with students at the Humphrey Occupational Center to improve their skills and document the elevated structure, and the effects on the surrounding neighborhood of its removal. September 1985 - June 1987.

1984

“Musing On Our Lives,” a performance piece with videotape, Melissa Shook and Jeanne Lee, March 31, 1984. Sponsored by the Catskill Center for Photography, Arts-In-Action Coalition and grants from NEA, The New York State Council on the Arts and the IMB Corporation.