Juraj Meliš (1942, Nove Zámky – 2016, Skalica) was one of the most important sculptors and graphic artists of Slovak contemporary art.

From 1960 to 1966 he studied at the Academy Of Fine Arts And Design in Bratislava in the class of prof. Jozef Kostka.

His Environment series from 1970 already showed his interests, focused on problems, concerns and the destruction of the natural environment. He created environments, objects, drawings, prints and collages.

His works are included in public architectural spaces (Symbol of Railway Operations, 1970, New Castle Railway; Monument to a Pig, 1972 – 1974; Ošipáreň, 1977, on the Bratislava – Trnava highway, Vrable, rest Zeleneč). He initiated the Jozef Kostka School exhibition of sculptures held in a few Slovakian galleries (ZG, Senica, 1988; ZSVU Dostojevského rad, Bratislava, 1989).

When the prohibition on exhibiting in public galleries was active, in the normalisation period of 1970 – 1982, he created six so-called Albums. These contained drawings, collages, and photographs of sculptures, which were self-published. During that time, he also worked with visual poetry.

In 1970, he partook in the organisation of the Prvý otvorený ateliér in Rudolf Sikora’s house in Bratislava. There, he exhibited rudimentary installations made of discarded, found wooden objects (Prvý, Tretí).

From 1973 to 1993 he worked as an external associate at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Since 1990, he has worked as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. In 1991 he became an associate professor, and in the following year, a full-time professor. From 1999 to 2002 he was the head of the Department of Sculpture. He is one of the founders of the Gerulata association of artists in 1989.