Mel Rosas

Mel Rosas was born in Des Moines, IA in 1950 and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Drake University in Des Moines. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. Mel is a professor with the James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan where he has served on the faculty since 1976. On June 2, 1994, he received a Board of Governor’s Faculty Recognition Award for outstanding professional achievement. In 2013, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to WSU in the areas of creative activity, teaching, and service, Mel was appointed as the Elaine L. Jacob Endowed Chair in Visual Arts.

Rosas has exhibited his drawings and paintings extensively in local and national venues and one can view his work in numerous corporate and private collections on national and local levels. Past exhibitions include the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; the Lemberg Gallery, Birmingham, MI; Fendrick Gallery, Washington, DC; Butler Institute of Art, Youngstown, OH; and the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY. In addition, he has mounted eight solo exhibitions at the Davidson Gallery in New York City.

His paintings and drawings are included in numerous private and corporate collections including the Chemical Bank, New York, NY, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI, Carnegie/Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, Southeast Banking Corporation, Miami, FL, and the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC.

He has been a recipient of the following grants: A Visual Artist’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1993; an Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Grant, New York, NY, 2003/2004; a Wayne State University Charles H. Gershenson Distinguished Faculty Award, 2006 through 2008; and two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants, New York, NY, 2009 and 2018.

Rosas currently lives in Royal Oak Michigan with his wife Judith and two sons Victor and Jozef.