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Taradash Installation of Wind Dancing
Photo: Long Island Children's Museum
BIOGRAPHY
Meryl Taradash is an internationally exhibited, award winning kinetic sculptor. She is one of the few
women whose works make use of wind and light in their design. Her sculpture “Sisyphus” currently
overlooks the Grand Canal in Venice as part of the European Cultural Centre’s 2022 Biennial. This
exhibition is a culmination of her 30 years of work uniting movement, light and nature.
Since receiving her first public art commission (“Light Dance,” Camden, NJ ), a 42ft. high suspended
installation at a medical school, her work has been commissioned for a variety of public settings, such as
performing arts centers, parks and civic centers. While creating “Light Dance,” she learned how colored
Lucite moving forms could transport light into an atrium. Several of her Lucite forms and suspended
installations can be seen at Philadelphia’s Aramark Corp., the University of Virginia in Charlottesville’s
School of Nursing and the Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda, MD where the installation is 4
stories high and spans an area of over a 96ft. in length.
Taradash first began taking her work into the natural environment with support from the David Bermant
Foundation, which included opportunities for outdoor shows at parks and museums. After creating
“Wind Dancing” with Wayne P. LaPierre, her fabricator for Bermant’s site in front of the University of
California’s Art Museum in Santa Barbara, the Michener Art Museum offered her a solo exhibition. The
prestigious Elaine Benson Gallery of Bridgehampton invited Taradash to show “Wind Dancing,” and gave
her a solo show in their courtyard. Her exhibitions at the Elaine Benson Gallery enabled her works to be
collected, reviewed and shown by many. As a result, the Nobel Laureate, Dr. James Watson purchased
her work “Getting There” for his Cold Spring Harbor Labs exhibition, Sculpture by the Sea.
Taradash’s sculpture was forever changed when she visited world-renown sculptor George Rickey.
Because of his insights into kinetic movement, and willingness to share his many references, her work as
an artist blossomed and expanded. One of her award winning pieces, a tribute to Rickey’s generosity,
earned her first prize from the Kinetic Artists Organization and that was followed by an invitation to
participate in a group exhibit Whirlwind: Art in Motion at Overland Park Arboretum in KS.
Growing up in Clifton, NJ, Taradash’s family provided a supportive environment encouraging her to
create art and play music at an early age. She knew she wanted to study art after attending Connecticut
College, but it was the summer she spent at Banff School of Fine Arts, amongst a community of visual
and performing artists in the Canadian Rockies that proved to be truly transformational for the young
artist. Taradash made art 24/7- painting watercolors of the mountains, carving balsa for Japanese wood
cuts and drawing the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s rehearsals. The following spring, she began her studies of
painting and drawing at Pratt Institute where she completed her BFA, went on to receive her MFA
degree, and was awarded Assistantships and a prestigious Ford Foundation Grant.
Taradash was invited to the opening of Grounds For Sculpture and the International Sculpture Center.
The organization published her first commissions and reviewed her work in Sculpture Magazine as well
as supported the “Caged Bird Dances II” being permanently installed along the river walk of the
sculpture park.
“Just as one can compose forms, one can compose motions.”
Alexander Calder