Meryle Karloff Holmes
For over thirty years, Meryle Karloff Holmes has been an artist, entrepreneur, TV series creator, executive producer, art dealer, gallery owner, consultant, and public advocate. With a Bachelors of Fine Arts (Maryland Institute of Art) and Master's of Fine Arts (ABD, San Jose State University, Tyler School of Art, Temple U. and PA Academy of Fine Arts, Univ of PA), Meryle launched a career as a multi-media artist, sculptor, painter, and holographer.

 

As a practicing artist Meryle's art was based on eroticism and feminine essence, As an entrepreneur she developed the first sex therapy board game on the market ("Come" game) and created decorative window displays for New York City clients including Bloomingdales, B Altman's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Macy's.

 

Meryle became artist-collaborator with the Museum of Holography and co-created the first international exhibition of holography at the International Center for Photography, New York. As a founding member of Holocom Industries in Westport, CT, she designed the earliest holographic commercial displays for clients such as RJ Reynolds and Wm. Este Advertising. On July 4, 1975, with the Museum of Holography, she was responsible for the production of the first holographic spectacular for NYC at Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty witness by 500,000 spectators. Meryle was co-creator and co-executive producer of the "The Art Market Report", a national & international weekly television art magazine, which ran for three years as a flagship program for FNN (CNBC) cable and PBS broadcasts. With American Express as premier sponsor, advertising on the series fetched the highest cash value at that time (equaling that of the SuperBowl). Other engagements created by Meryle included the exclusive live coverage of the Andy Warhol auction at Sotheby's, which fed broadcast to all the major networks. This was the first time an auction was broadcast live. This ultimately resulted in exclusive coverage of all major art auctions with Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses in New York City.


For a six year period in the mid to late 1990's Meryle opened a 12,000 sq.ft, brick-and-mortar art institute/gallery a (501c3) non-profit: Art-Tech: Silicon Valley Institute of Art & Technology, in downtown San Jose, where cutting edge multi-media events were held in collaboration with other organizations, including the San Jose Ballet, California Arts Council, and the Cinequest Festival. In addition, Meryle brought luminary artists to her gallery including Arthur Miller, Ken Kesey, and Norman Mailer.


Meryle has served on several non-profit board of directors and committees including San Jose State University Center of Literary Arts, and she was former chair of the Art Park for San Jose's Guadalupe River Park, where she was instrumental in getting San Jose to adopt a percentage for the arts program. She was the first chairperson for the former local PBS (KTEH) art auction for three consecutive years raising millions, making the auction one of the most successful fundraising programs for the organization. In relocating Art-Tech's headquarters to her 20-acre ranch in San Jose's East Hills, the non-profit organization continues to develop its Think-Tank, Art Park, and Artist-in-Residence with cutting edge art and technology "green theme" programs and new media exhibitions and events.