About the artist

Marc Mellon is one of America's foremost representational sculptors, well known for his portrait busts, commemorative statues, and works in bronze exploring the worlds of dance, sport, and family life.   Mellon’s prodigious output of works reflects the passion he has for his chosen discipline.  “My works reflects our interests as engaged human beings,” says the artist.  “I sculpt what we are passionate about, and the resulting works are collected precisely because they speak to those passions.”

Schooled to pursue the sciences, Mellon left pre-medical studies for the study of history and philosophy before discovering art as a vehicle to embrace all his interests. From the start he enjoyed the challenge of conveying something of the inner life of his subjects...multi-faceted portrait busts, evocative dance and sports sculptures in balance and motion, and bronzes projecting the strength and confidence emblematic of contemporary womanhood.

His works have been displayed from New York to Los Angeles to Tokyo and are in numerous corporate, private, and public collections worldwide. Mellon has been present to see his works honor the vision and achievements of leaders in the worlds of dance, sport, business, philanthropy, science, medicine, religion, education, and civic affairs.

Individuals who have been recognized and honored with Mellon bronzes include Pope John Paul II, President George H. W. Bush, President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan, athletes Michael Jordan, Mickey Mantle, Arthur Ashe, Cal Ripken, Chris Evert, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Venus Williams, dance world legends Agnes de Mille and Cynthia Gregory, Nobel Peace Prize recipients Elie Wiesel, Muhammad Yunus, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Barack Obama, transformational university leaders Chancellor Herman B. Wells (Indiana University) and Chancellor John Silber (Boston University), and a host of business leaders. 

Mellon’s works in museum collections include The 2009 Official Barack Obama Inaugural Medal, and bronze busts of George H.W. Bush.  His portrait bust of Pope John Paul II resides in the Papal Apartments of the Vatican; his bust of Elie Wiesel is on view at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and the Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University.  In 2018 a monumental version of Mellon’s Wiesel bust was unveiled in Elie Wiesel Plaza, Bucharest, Romania, during Holocaust Remembrance Week.

Examples of Mellon’s works in bronze are on over 40 university and medical campuses across America, including major statues of Dr. Alton Ochsner in New Orleans and of George Eastman (Eastman Quadrangle) and Ed Hajim (Hajim Quadrangle/Hajim School of Engineering) at the University of Rochester. 

Mellon has also produced several of America’s best-known bronzes of sports and popular culture, including the NBA MVP Trophy, the WNBA MVP Trophy, the Bobby Clarke Trophy, and the Dave Rimington Trophy.  For forty-five years he’s captured the athleticism and beauty of both sports and dance, culminating in recent retrospective exhibits in each area.

The artist is also known as an accomplished medalist and relief sculptor.  His medals have paid tribute to Theodore Roosevelt (commissioned by the Theodore Roosevelt Association), Barack Obama (commissioned by the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee), Walt Whitman (commissioned by the Grolier Club), Nobel Peace Prize recipient Albert Schweitzer, and engineer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Wallace H. Coulter.

Mellon’s bust of Muhammad Ali is presented annually as the Muhammad Ali Voice of Humanity Honor by the Society of Voice Arts and Science, in collaboration with the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky.  Recipients have included Lonnie Ali, Ken Burns, Henry Louis Gates Jr, Van Jones, and Stacey Abrams.

Over the last eight years, Mellon has been working collaboratively on a ballet-inspired series of bronzes with some of our most accomplished international ballet artists. His model/collaborators have included ABT principal dancers Hee Seo, Marcelo Gomes, Devon Teuscher, Christine Shevchenko, and Cassandra Trenary, actress and former ABT dancer Elina Miettinen, modern dancer and choreographer Isaac Lerner, and pre-professional dancer and medical researcher Margaux Amara.

Mellon's love of the figure and interest in exploring core human values is evident in all his art. "My sculptures are meant to move and uplift the spirit," he says. "I'm interested in how we find meaning and fulfillment in this world, and my work, across the board, reflects that interest.  Some of my work is also produced to help inspire us to more actively engage intractable ongoing issues of war and peace, social justice, and environmental healing.

Mellon is President ex-officio of the Artists' Fellowship Inc., a charitable foundation that assists professional fine artists and their families in times of emergency or bereavement. He is an active member of the National Arts Club, elected artist member of The Century Association, artist member of The Salmagundi Club, and elected Fellow of the National Sculpture Association, all located in Manhattan.  He has also served as Master Sculptor in Residence at Chesterwood National Historic Site, and at Brookgreen Gardens and Sculpture Museum.  He has also been chosen to juror numerous national arts organizations, and has received awards from The National Sculpture Society, Allied Artists, the Hudson Valley Arts Association, The National Arts Club, and The Salmagundi Club.  Over the decades Mellon’s timeless works have been featured in art magazines American Artist and Fine Art Connoisseur and noted by publications as diverse as The Wall Street Journal and GQ Magazine.

During 2020 and 2021 numerous publications and TV media covered Mellon’s major Jackie Robinson-George Shuba Handshake For the Century Commemorative Statue.  CBS Sunday Morning and ESPN each produced major segments on the project, which shed a spotlight on Robinson’s and Shuba’s 1946 home plate handshake, which helped announce the end of segregation in professional baseball and served as harbinger of the modern civil rights movement.

Recent New York City exhibitions at the Century Association (2018 and 2021) and the National Arts Club (2021) have introduced other recent work, notably a series of pas de deux dance bronzes, the mid-scale model for the Robinson-Shuba Handshake, and busts of sports and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson, Nobel Prize-winning statesman Mikhail Gorbachev, global warming activist Greta Thunberg, and genocide conventions advocate Raphael Lemkin.

These new busts join Mellon’s previous busts of Elie Wiesel, Muhammad Ali, and Albert Einstein in what he refers to as his “Globe Changers” series.  In process is a new bust of legendary women’s rights lawyer and advocate, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. His bust of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, produced to assist in Ukraine relief efforts, will join Winston Churchill and others in Mellon's GlobeChangers Series.

Mellon has been casting in bronze for over 45 years. He is married to fellow noted sculptor Babette Bloch, equally well-known internationally for her laser-cut and water-jet cut stainless steel sculptures and monuments.  Marc and Babette have studios in Redding, Connecticut.  Retrospective exhibits of Mellon's and Bloch's works were recently exhibited at noted sculpture museum Brookgreen Gardens, helping mark the inaugural year for Brookgreen's new Rosen Galleries. The exhibition, curated by noted Brookgreen Curator of Collections Robin Salmon included 100 works. Bronze and Steel: The Sculpture of Marc Mellon and Babette Bloch ran from May through July 2022.