Artist Statement

Richard Mendelson was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in September, 1953, and has resided in Napa Valley since 1986. He is a graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University and Stanford Law School.

Mendelson's passion for art arises from his lifelong interest in body movement. As a long-time student, practitioner and teacher of yoga, tai chi and chi gung, Mendelson strives to evoke the maximum of energy and emotion from the minimum of material. According to the artist, "Most of my work is figurative and all of it is inspired by movement. The combination of metal's edges and solidity, surrounded by emptiness, allows me to express the human condition and its many facets: grandiose at times, often whimsical, always flowing." Collector Rene di Rosa of Di Rosa Preserve remarks: "Richard Mendelson creates metal that springs to life."

Mendelson's one-of-a-kind, indoor and outdoor sculptures are fabricated from steel and stainless steel. In addition to fabricating metal sculptures, Mendelson is one of Napa Valley's preeminent wine lawyers and grows and produces Mendelson Wines.

Solo Exhibitions

• Pearl Restaurant, Napa, CA, ongoing
• Napa Valley Arts Council Fall Tour, 1997-present/li>
• Dean & Deluca, St. Helena, CA, Sept-Oct 1999 and May-Aug 2002
• Brix outdoor sculpture garden, Yountville, CA, Apr-Oct 2000
• Alexis Baking Company, Napa, CA, summers 1999 and 2000

Group Exhibitions

• 500 Townsend, pried sculpture exhibition, San Francisco, CA, Jan 2002
• Napa Valley Harvest Festival, Charles Krug Winery Carriage House 8c, Lawn, featured sculptor, Sept 2000
• St. Supery Winery, Rutherford, CA, summers 1998-2000

Galleries and Institutional Collections

• Di Rosa Preserve - Art 8c, Nature, Napa, CA

Recent Commissions

• Les Feuilles de Vigne, Napa Valley Vintners Teaching College, Napa, CA
• Grandeur, Dan Lynch, Lynch Valley Ranch, St. Helena, CA
• La Vigne, Beringer Blass Wine Estates, Napa, CA

Spirit In Metal

Richard Mendelson is a lawyer, winemaker, and one of America's leading authorities on wine law. In his 40s, his mother died suddenly and it plunged him into a period of reflection about the meaning of life. In the midst of this difficult passage, Richard discovered a new passion: Working in metal. Bringing cold metal to life became a release, a renewal, a meditation, and an exciting new passion and personal awakening. In Spirit in Metal, Richard takes us along on this wonderful spiritual journey, and step by step we see and feel the birth of an artist. This Val de Grace Book, truly a collector's item, is published in private edition only.

Contact

For communications, commissions, prices and art shows, contact:

Richard Mendelson 809 Coombs Street Napa, CA 94559

Tel. 707-261-7005 Fax. 707-255-8249

Email: richard@mendelsonarts.com