Sylvani Merilion (née Smith) (4 October 1936 - 31 March 2019) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

and former

art teacher Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of what ...

. In 1964 she was one of the four founder members of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Ikon Gallery The Ikon Gallery () is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Grade II listed, neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1877. Ikon was set u ...

. Merilion's artworks in the 1960s featured images of astronauts and space travel, influenced by pop art and the visual forms of the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' said of them in 2004 - "Her drawings of astronauts aren't strident or overdetermined, like most Pop works, just bright, clever and clear."

Biography

Merilion was born in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

and studied at

King's College, Newcastle Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick unive ...

and the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

. Her father had always wanted a son, and she recalled being brought up as a boy: "Apart from encouraging an interest in football he bought me ''The Boys' Book of Space'' and the ''

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

'' comic (featuring

Dan Dare Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories. Dare appeared in the ''Eagle'' comic story ''Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future'' from 1950 to 1967 (and subsequently in repri ...

.)" Between 1958 and 1960 she worked in the studio of

Vanessa Bell Vanessa Bell (née Stephen; 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961) was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury Group and the sister of Virginia Woolf (née Stephen). Early life and education Vanessa Stephen was the eld ...

and

Duncan Grant Duncan James Corrowr Grant (21 January 1885 – 8 May 1978) was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. His father was Bartle Grant, a "poverty-stricken" major ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, and produced

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

with

Quentin Bell Quentin Claudian Stephen Bell (19 August 1910 – 16 December 1996) was an English art historian and author. Early life Bell was born in London, the son of Clive Bell and Vanessa Bell (née Stephen), and the nephew of Virginia Woolf (née Ste ...

. In 1960 she moved to

and taught until 1991 at the

Birmingham School of Art The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Faculty of Arts, Design a ...

(from 1971 the Faculty of Art of

Birmingham Polytechnic , mottoeng = "Do what you are doing; attend to your business" , established = 1992—gained university status1971—City of Birmingham Polytechnic1843— Birmingham College of Art , type = Public , affiliation = ...

), where she met

Trevor Denning Trevor J. Denning (6 December 1923 – 23 October 2009) was an English artist, sculptor, writer, and art teacher who was influential in the Birmingham art community. Biography Denning was born in Moseley, Birmingham, studying painting and gra ...

Jesse Bruton Jesse Bruton (born 1933) is a British artist, and a founder of the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. He gave up painting in 1972, to become a picture conservator. Bruton was born in 1933 and was educated at Birmingham College of Art, where he later ...

and

David Prentice David Prentice (4 July 1936 – 7 May 2014) was an English artist and former art teacher. In 1964 he was one of the four founder members of Birmingham's Ikon Gallery. Prentice's work features in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Mu ...

. In 1961 her work appeared at

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, local ...

and in the ''Four Letter Art'' exhibition at the

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists or RBSA is an art society, based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England, where it owns and operates an art gallery, the RBSA Gallery, on Brook Street, just off St Paul's Square. It is both a re ...

. In 1964 Merilion was one of the artists gathered by David Prentice to set up "something to invigorate the city with progressive ideas about art." Originally intended as a "gallery without walls" the venture was eventually founded as the

in a kiosk in the Bull Ring shopping centre in 1965. Merilion held solo exhibitions at the Ikon in 1965 and 1967 but resigned from the gallery in 1967, largely because she was pregnant, continuing to teach and create her own work.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merilion, Sylvani 1936 births Living people Artists from Newcastle upon Tyne Artists from Birmingham, West Midlands English artists Alumni of King's College, Newcastle