Melissa Harshman and Mark Ritchie: Flora and Fauna

Flora and Fauna presented a dazzling installation of paper-pulp poppies entitled “Hope” by Georgia artist Melissa Harshman and a suite of impressive large scale woodcuts by Wyoming artist Mark Ritchie.  Melissa Harshman’s 1500 red poppies that filled the back wall of the gallery refer to the Remembrance Poppy, adopted as a symbol of peace and resilience after World War I.  Each of these flowers have poppy seeds embedded in the paper, with the idea that after they have been shown in the gallery they can be planted, growing even more flowers.  As we have struggled through the pandemic, this piece has grown in significance, honoring those who have died and giving hope to the rest of us.  The sources for Mark Ritchie’s work are drawn from his home in the ecologically rich landscape of southeastern Wyoming.  The feral horse as a naturalized replacement grazer questions constructs of native and invasive, wild and feral.  The interaction of equine and human in mounted archery and polo examines a shared animal nature, a poetry in unity of movement, and a foundation of the mythical centaur that acknowledges the union of wild and domestic, of human and animal.  Both artists bring a mastery of their craft to these works, making bold visual statements that address contemporary concerns.

Melissa Harshman is a Professor and the Area Chair in the Printmaking and Book Arts Department of the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia.  She has shown her work in hundreds of shows across the country, including more than 35 solo and two-person exhibitions.  Her work can be found in more than 50 public collections, including the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, France, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, and the Royal West Academy in Bristol, England.  She has presented her work at numerous academic conferences, and her work has been widely reproduced in books, magazines, and exhibition catalogues.  Melissa Harshman received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

Mark Ritchie is a Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Wyoming.  He has shown his artwork widely across the country and around the world, including exhibitions in Portugal, China, India, South Korea, Estonia, Finland, and Norway.  He has been a visiting artist and speaker for dozens of university art programs and has been asked to serve as the juror for many juried art competitions.  His work is included in many public collections, including the Jyvaskyla Art Museum in Jyvaskyla, Finland, the Museum of the Chicago Art Institute, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the permanent collections of many colleges and universities.  Mark Ritchie received his Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kansas University in Lawrence, KS.