Mel Chin

Born in Houston, Texas, in 1951, Mel Chin employs a wide range of approaches, from unique, idiosyncratic objects to operations that require multidisciplinary collaboration. He insists that projects in the public field be dosed with a rigorous pragmatism and an elevated poetic. Chin is the recipient of many awards, grants, and honorary degrees, including the MacArthur Fellowship (2019) and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2021).

Chin’s medallion, The Unfinished Undertaking, depicts a pyramid familiar from American iconology but stripped of the protection of divine Providence and in dire need of repair and restitution. Honestly submitted “to a candid world” (as the Declaration puts it), it represents a structure of ideals upon the barren landscape of internal excitations and divisions.