Memphis Material

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. ...

From the artist’s website : Mary K VanGieson is an artist, educator, storyteller and sometime writer.  She received my BAE from Oklahoma State University and her MFA from the University of Memphis. She discovered early on that educating high school people in the visual arts is a completely rewarding career. Her work delves into themes of Cover, Cloak, Shadow, Loss and Erosion.  The practice...

From the artist’s website : Mary K VanGieson is an artist, educator, storyteller and sometime writer.  She received my BAE from Oklahoma State University and her MFA from the University of Memphis. She discovered early on that educating high school people in the visual arts is a completely rewarding career. Her work delves into themes of Cover, Cloak, Shadow, Loss and Erosion.  The practice...

Coe Lapossy is an interdisciplinary visual artist educator committed to collaboration. Lapossy centers erased histories and marginalized labor. Revisiting artifacts —things forgotten, messages that ‘flew under the radar’. The resulting work is a meditation on what bodies we value, how we memorialize, and what/who survives under the conditions we create. Lapossy (b. 1980, Medina, OH) ha...

Dr. Lisa M. Williamson is a writer and artist in Memphis, TN. She received her MFA in painting from the Memphis College of Art and her PhD in aesthetic theory from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts. Williamson’s practice begins with observations of psychological time-keeping, and responds with immediacy to the urgency of the contemporary moment. Upon returning from the Arctic C...

Dr. Lisa M. Williamson is a writer and artist in Memphis, TN. She received her MFA in painting from the Memphis College of Art and her PhD in aesthetic theory from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts. Williamson’s practice begins with observations of psychological time-keeping, and responds with immediacy to the urgency of the contemporary moment. Upon returning from the Arctic C...

Lester Julian Merriweather (b.1978) is a Memphis-based visual artist. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. He holds an MFA from Memphis College of Art and a BA from Jackson State University. Merriweather has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. at various venues such as the Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC, CAM St. Louis, TOPS Gallery, CrosstownArts and Powerhouse Memphis...

Lester Julian Merriweather (b.1978) is a Memphis-based visual artist. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. He holds an MFA from Memphis College of Art and a BA from Jackson State University. Merriweather has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. at various venues such as the Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC, CAM St. Louis, TOPS Gallery, CrosstownArts and Powerhouse Memphis...

Terri Jones lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee. She received her BFA from Atlanta College of Art, Georgia in 1985.  In 1992, she was awarded a Southern Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award for Works on Paper. In the summer of 2004, Power House, a DeltaAxis initiative, in Memphis asked Terri to respond to their landmark building.  For that exhibition,  Drawing A Line...

Terri Jones lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee. She received her BFA from Atlanta College of Art, Georgia in 1985.  In 1992, she was awarded a Southern Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award for Works on Paper. In the summer of 2004, Power House, a DeltaAxis initiative, in Memphis asked Terri to respond to their landmark building.  For that exhibition,  Drawing A Line...

From the Dixon Gallery and Gardens website about her amazing show there in 2023.  Jeanne Seagle’s perceptive drawings portray the landscapes surrounding Memphis with a remarkable precision. Delicately rendering the trees and swamps of Dacus Lake along the Mississippi River, Seagle captures the subtle effects of light and atmosphere on the varied textures of the natural world. A longtime Memphis re...

From the Dixon Gallery and Gardens website about her amazing show there in 2023.  Jeanne Seagle’s perceptive drawings portray the landscapes surrounding Memphis with a remarkable precision. Delicately rendering the trees and swamps of Dacus Lake along the Mississippi River, Seagle captures the subtle effects of light and atmosphere on the varied textures of the natural world. A longtime Memphis re...

Melissa Dunn ’s studio is in her house in Memphis, Tennessee, where she was born and has lived most of her life.  She spent her early years immersed in the city’s music scene, splitting her time between playing with bands and making visual art.  Her abstract-based work is the landing pad where stream of consciousness and the world meet, telling stories that shapes and color carry, either over a li...

Melissa Dunn ’s studio is in her house in Memphis, Tennessee, where she was born and has lived most of her life.  She spent her early years immersed in the city’s music scene, splitting her time between playing with bands and making visual art.  Her abstract-based work is the landing pad where stream of consciousness and the world meet, telling stories that shapes and color carry, either over a li...

This interview with Jamie Harmon was recorded on March 1, 2024. From his amazing Amurica website: “I use photography and found objects to tell stories and give glimpses into individuals’ characters and their responses to each other and to their environments. In this way, I consider myself a sort of “visual anthropologist,” making observations in communities by driving around, meeting people,...

This interview with Jamie Harmon was recorded on February 10, 2024. From his amazing Amurica website: “I use photography and found objects to tell stories and give glimpses into individuals’ characters and their responses to each other and to their environments. In this way, I consider myself a sort of “visual anthropologist,” making observations in communities by driving around, meeting peo...

This interview with Carl Moore was recorded at the Memphis Listening Lab on February 5, 2023. The artist Carl E. Moore lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee.  He recieved both his BFA and MFA from the Memphis College of Art. Moore is the recipient of the Emmett O’Ryan Award for Artistic Inspiration and the Tennessee Artist Fellowship award from the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts....

This interview with Carl Moore was recorded at the Memphis Listening Lab on January 15, 2023. The artist Carl E. Moore lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee.  He recieved both his BFA and MFA from the Memphis College of Art. Moore is the recipient of the Emmett O’Ryan Award for Artistic Inspiration and the Tennessee Artist Fellowship award from the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts....

This interview with Carol DeForest was recorded on February 21, 2025 From her ceramic studio to her large scale public art projects, private commissions, teaching, interior design business and exhibitions of her sculpture, Carol DeForest has been a force in the Memphis art community for the last 30 years. She has also been a nurturing spirit to artists and art lover alike. Her shrewd and unfailing...

From her ceramic studio to her large scale public art projects, private commissions, teaching, interior design business and exhibitions of her sculpture, Carol DeForest has been a force in the Memphis art community for the last 30 years. She has also been a nurturing spirit to artists and art lover alike. Her shrewd and unfailing art and design knowledge, taste and appreciation have acted as a gui...

This interview with Carol DeForest was recorded on January 10, 2023. From her ceramic studio to her large scale public art projects, private commissions, teaching, interior design business and exhibitions of her sculpture, Carol DeForest has been a force in the Memphis art community for the last 30 years. She has also been a nurturing spirit to artists and art lover alike. Her shrewd and unfailing...

This interview with the potter Agnes Stark was recorded in the Memphis Listening Lab on August 3, 2022.   Agnes Gordon Stark is a studio potter creating functional and decorative stoneware. Her strong design and glaze technique combine to produce work that is widely recognized for its appealing originality. The stoneware has all of the safeguards necessary for kitchen use. A native of Baltimo...

This interview with Maritza Davilla was recorded on April 1, 2025. Maritza Dávila is owner and director of Atabeira Press and Professor Emeritus of the Memphis College of Art where she taught printmaking and drawing from 1982 to 2018 and at the University of Memphis as an adjunct professor. She is currently teaching with Creative Aging of Memphis providing art workshops for the senior community as...

This interview with Maritza Davilla was recorded on June 27, 2022. Maritza Dávila is owner and director of Atabeira Press and Professor Emeritus of the Memphis College of Art where she taught printmaking and drawing from 1982 to 2018 and at the University of Memphis as an adjunct professor. She is currently teaching with Creative Aging of Memphis providing art workshops for the senior community as...