Memphis Material

Patricia Lee Daigle is Chief Curator at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (MBMA), where she leads the curatorial department and specializes in modern and contemporary art. Prior to this role, she served as MBMA Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art between 2021 and 2025. At MBMA, she has curated numerous exhibitions including Suchitra Mattai: with abundance we meet (2025), Harmonia Rosales: Master...

Tracy  Lauritzen Wright is Chief Operating Officer at ARTSmemphis, a Local Arts Agency supporting the arts to strengthen the community.  She administers $3.4M+ in grants to 90 arts organizations and artists annually.  She has 25 years’ experience in museums and cultural organizations, including 14 years at the National Civil Rights Museum.  She served as Executive Director of Delta Axis, a contemp...

Tracy  Lauritzen Wright is Chief Operating Officer at ARTSmemphis, a Local Arts Agency supporting the arts to strengthen the community.  She administers $3.4M+ in grants to 90 arts organizations and artists annually.  She has 25 years’ experience in museums and cultural organizations, including 14 years at the National Civil Rights Museum.  She served as Executive Director of Delta Axis, a contemp...

From Paula Kovarik’s amazing website : Paula Kovarik creates art with stitch and fabric. Her intuitive line work travels the surface of her work as if a meditation has become solid. Inward thoughts become outwardly apparent through slow and studied attention to detail. Kovarik’s award-winning fiber art has been recognized by Quilt National, Quilts=Art=Quilts, World of Threads, and FiberArt N...

From Niles Wallace’s webiste : I was born in Western Pennsylvania in 1948.  My serious interest in Art began in high school and extended to college.  I graduated from Edinboro State University of Pennsylvania in 1970 with a degree in Art Education.  At Edinboro I became interested in Ceramics and subsequently attended graduate school at Alfred University, Alfred, NY, where I studied under Va...

From Niles Wallace’s webiste : I was born in Western Pennsylvania in 1948.  My serious interest in Art began in high school and extended to college.  I graduated from Edinboro State University of Pennsylvania in 1970 with a degree in Art Education.  At Edinboro I became interested in Ceramics and subsequently attended graduate school at Alfred University, Alfred, NY, where I studied under Va...

Fred Burton is a painter/printmaker born in Diablo Heights, Panama, Central America. His career began in the 1970s as both a working artist and educator. Travels and various artist residencies have influenced his personal vision and approach to art-making. Burton distills his life experiences into a visual diary, drawing inspiration from diverse sources including the Book of Kells in Trinity Colle...

From the amazing UrbanArt Commission’s Movable Collection site: Frank D. Robinson Jr. is a Memphis-based visual artist with a primary focus on narratives and the transformation of discarded objects from everyday life, such as packaging, cereal boxes, fast food papers, glass, and keys, into exquisite jewels for his large-scale mixed-media artworks. He holds a BFA from the University of Memphi...

From Birdcap’s amazing website : Birdcap is a myth-making muralist and comic artist whose work drifts between folklore and philosophy. With roots in street culture and a mind full of ghosts, he creates poetic narratives about impermanence, rebellion, and the strange joy of continuing on.

From Birdcap’s amazing website : Birdcap is a myth-making muralist and comic artist whose work drifts between folklore and philosophy. With roots in street culture and a mind full of ghosts, he creates poetic narratives about impermanence, rebellion, and the strange joy of continuing on.

From Paul’s amazing website : Paul Behnke (b. Memphis, Tenn.) is an American painter whose practice is grounded in contemporary abstraction, with a sustained engagement in chromatic intensity, gestural mark-making, and the formal possibilities of non-objective painting. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the Memphis College of Art. Behnke’s work has been the subject of...

From Paul’s amazing website : Paul Behnke (b. Memphis, Tenn.) is an American painter whose practice is grounded in contemporary abstraction, with a sustained engagement in chromatic intensity, gestural mark-making, and the formal possibilities of non-objective painting. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the Memphis College of Art. Behnke’s work has been the subject of...

Don Estes is known for harmonious, dimensional abstractions of the landscape of the American South. He focuses on geological formations, river bluffs, coastlines, and horizons- places where water, land, and light interact and change through the passage of time. In a range of intensities and textures, he layers dry pigment, pastel, and gesso in horizontal and vertical bands, narrow stripes, wide bl...

Don Estes is known for harmonious, dimensional abstractions of the landscape of the American South. He focuses on geological formations, river bluffs, coastlines, and horizons- places where water, land, and light interact and change through the passage of time. In a range of intensities and textures, he layers dry pigment, pastel, and gesso in horizontal and vertical bands, narrow stripes, wide bl...

From a text message from Tom Lee after I asked for a brief bio: “born somewhere in texas, i ain’t sayin, moved a bit with preacher dad, sweetest mom, too many sibs to admit to, some strangers to me and mine, texas education, say what you will, understand you’re being a skeptic, i do, higher ed tho, land of grizzlies, bozeman and all, lotta nice and smart folks, artists all, highest ed,...

From a text message from Tom Lee after I asked for a brief bio: “born somewhere in texas, i ain’t sayin, moved a bit with preacher dad, sweetest mom, too many sibs to admit to, some strangers to me and mine, texas education, say what you will, understand you’re being a skeptic, i do, higher ed tho, land of grizzlies, bozeman and all, lotta nice and smart folks, artists all, highest ed,...

From a text message from Tom Lee after I asked for a brief bio: “born somewhere in texas, i ain’t sayin, moved a bit with preacher dad, sweetest mom, too many sibs to admit to, some strangers to me and mine, texas education, say what you will, understand you’re being a skeptic, i do, higher ed tho, land of grizzlies, bozeman and all, lotta nice and smart folks, artists all, highest ed,...

Brittney Boyd Bullock is a visual artist living and working in Memphis, Tennessee. As an artist working in fiber, mixed media, and abstraction, her practice explores the power and connection felt when we slow down to reimagine and reframe the observable world. Outside of her studio practice, she is a non-profit arts consultant, educator, and arts advocate. She has been awarded grants and fellowshi...

Brittney Boyd Bullock is a visual artist living and working in Memphis, Tennessee. As an artist working in fiber, mixed media, and abstraction, her practice explores the power and connection felt when we slow down to reimagine and reframe the observable world. Outside of her studio practice, she is a non-profit arts consultant, educator, and arts advocate. She has been awarded grants and fellowshi...

Brittney Boyd Bullock is a visual artist living and working in Memphis, Tennessee. As an artist working in fiber, mixed media, and abstraction, her practice explores the power and connection felt when we slow down to reimagine and reframe the observable world. Outside of her studio practice, she is a non-profit arts consultant, educator, and arts advocate. She has been awarded grants and fellowshi...

Nancy Cheairs is a Memphis-based American  painter known for creating symbolic, luminous works inspired by nature, folk art, and literature. She holds a BFA from the Memphis College of Art and an MFA from the University of Memphis.  She founded Flicker Street Studio, an art school in Memphis, Tn. in 2010.   Nancy  has exhibited extensively in the U.S., with her work in numerous collections, includ...

Nancy Cheairs is a Memphis-based American  painter known for creating symbolic, luminous works inspired by nature, folk art, and literature. She holds a BFA from the Memphis College of Art and an MFA from the University of Memphis.  She founded Flicker Street Studio, an art school in Memphis, Tn. in 2010.   Nancy  has exhibited extensively in the U.S., with her work in numerous collections, includ...

Fredric Koeppel was the art writer and reviewer for The Commercial Appeal newspaper from 1987 to 2017. He also wrote about restaurants, books and classical music recordings. He has had poems, stories and novel excerpts published in a variety of literary journals. He writes the wine review website  biggerthanyourhead.substack.com .

Fredric Koeppel was the art writer and reviewer for The Commercial Appeal newspaper from 1987 to 2017. He also wrote about restaurants, books and classical music recordings. He has had poems, stories and novel excerpts published in a variety of literary journals. He writes the wine review website  biggerthanyourhead.substack.com .

Lauren Kennedy grew up in Little Rock, then suburban Dallas, then came to study at Rhodes College where she graduated with a degree in Art History in 2008.  She returned to Dallas to work at the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Dallas Art Fair.  Kennedy returned to Memphis to work for Ballet Memphis and she ran South Fork, an alternative art space that showed dozens of local and national artists. ...