Print Media Alumnus Melih Meriç Included in "New Voices: Design" at Print Center New York
Melih Meriç’s (MFA Print Media 2023) work is currently on view in New Voices: Design at Print Center New York in Chelsea through August 22, 2026. The exhibition was recently featured in Surface magazine, which spotlighted the eight-artist cohort and the exhibition’s curatorial vision.
New Voices: Design is the fourth edition of Print Center New York’s annual open call program for emerging artists, which pairs group exhibitions with mentorship, public programming, and professional development. This year’s edition was curated by Andrew Raftery, professor of printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design, who selected eight artists from nearly 400 applications to examine the historical legacy and contemporary resonance of pattern across a wide range of printmaking practices. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication featuring a critical essay by Raftery.
Meriç is a printmaker and educator whose practice explores a spiritual journey through Islamic geometric abstraction. Drawing on the visual traditions of Middle Eastern tile-making and pattern, they create stitched editions and embossed works on paper that speak to diaspora, assimilation, queerness, and identity across cultures. “My work deals with making peace with a part of my culture that drove me to leave it,” Meriç has said. “Finding beauty in design and simplicity, then creating systems to complicate those principles.” Their work has been exhibited across the United States and internationally in Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, Austria, and Turkey. In 2025, Meriç received the Individual Excellence Award in Visual Arts from the Ohio Arts Council.
Visitors to the exhibition are also invited to attend Turkish Coffee + Block Printing, a public workshop led by Meriç on Saturday, August 22, the closing day of the exhibition, from 2–4:30 pm at Print Center New York.
New Voices: Design is on view at Print Center New York, 535 West 24th Street, Chelsea, New York, through August 22, 2026. Gallery hours are Tuesday–Saturday, 11 am–6 pm.
Learn more:
Print Center New York’s “New Voices: Design” Spotlights Eight Emerging Printmakers – Surface Mag
