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About the Artist British artist Melinda Camber Porter graduated from Oxford University with a First Class Honours degree in Modern Languages. She began her writing career in Paris as a cultural correspondent for The Times of London. French culture is the subject of her book Through Parisian Eyes (published by Oxford University Press), which the Boston Globe describes as “a particularly readable and brilliantly and uniquely compiled collection.” During her years as a cultural correspondent for The Times of London from Paris and New York, Camber Porter did portraits, interviews, and on-location reports with many of the world’s most recognized and revered film directors, including Ingmar Bergman, François Truffaut, and John Huston. A solo traveling exhibition celebrating Camber Porter’s oils on canvas and works on paper, curated by the late Leo Castelli, opened at the French Embassy in New York City in 1993. This exhibition, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the French Embassy, traveled to fourteen major cities across the across the United States through 1997, making a special tour of museums in the western United States to coincide with the publication of her novel Badlands. The novel, a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, set on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, was acclaimed by Louis Malle as “an extraordinary book. Its imagery makes one think of William Blake” and by Publishers Weekly as “a novel of startling, dreamlike lyricism.” A film documenting the creation of the paintings featured in this solo exhibition, entitled The Art of Love, shows regularly on Public Television stations nationally and was acclaimed by Billboard as “a well-paced chronicle of personal and professional achievement that will appeal to artists of all ilks.” A collection of her poetry and paintings, also entitled The Art of Love, serves as companion to the show. Leo Castelli wrote: “Not since William Blake has an artist created such a profound relationship between the visual and verbal worlds.” Camber Porter’s paintings have also served as the primary inspiration and as backdrops for several of her theatrical works. She created the backdrops, book, and lyrics for the musical Night Angel, which was originally performed at Lincoln Center in New York City, and the comedy Boat Child, which was performed at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. She also created the book, lyrics, and backdrops for the rock-opera-in-progress Journey to Benares, with music, direction, and choreography by Elizabeth Swados, which was performed at the Asia Society and Museum in New York City in November 2003. From 1995 to 1997 Camber Porter completed Luminous Bodies, ninety-five watercolors and pen-and-ink drawings. Between 1997 and 1998 she completed a major painting series, Barcelona Point, of sixteen large oils on canvas. A short film documenting the creating of the Luminous Bodies and Barcelona Point series, entitled Luminous Journey, is currently airing on Public Television. The solo exhibition of twenty-three works on paper selected from the Luminous Bodies series was presented at the Jerwood Gallery at Oxford University in 2004. Robin Hamlyn, Senior Curator at Tate Britain, delivered the opening lecture in the distinguished Jerwood Gallery Series of Lectures and Exhibitions on the profound influence of William Blake on Camber Porter’s paintings. A feature documentary entitled Sacred Journey, which explores the influence of Native American culture and spirituality on the artist’s visual works and her collaboration with Mi’kmaq musician Hubert Francis, is presently airing nationwide in Canada on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and on Vision Television. Camber Porter’s new series of oils on canvas, the Horses of Chauvet Series, is inspired by her lifelong love of horses and the images of horses painted on the Chauvet Caves in France. A solo exhibition, The Arousal of Nature, of selected works from this series and other large oils on canvas, was shown at the Walter Wickiser Gallery, New York City, in 2005. Camber Porter directed a feature-length film on the life and works of British director Michael Apted. Her film on Wim Wenders, a dramatic feature and documentary, recounts the coming of age of Wenders in Bretagne in the mid-1960s. In these films the directors become the actors of their own creative journeys. A third film on the life and works of Martin Scorsese was developed. The British Consulate General in New York City hosted a retrospective exhibition of Camber Porter’s works on paper and oils on canvas. The reception also marked the publication of William Blake Illuminates the Works of Melinda Camber Porter by Robin Hamlyn, Blake expert and Senior Curator at Tate Britain. The artist was born in London, educated at Oxford University, and lived and worked in Paris for several years as a writer and artist. She died of ovarian cancer on October 9, 2008 at her home in Sag Harbor. She was 55 - see list of Exhibitions and Published Works
for more information contact: |
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The Works of Melinda Camber Porter info@camberporter.org |
