Biography

Merrie Wright is a professional ceramic sculptor who lives and works in east Texas. Merrie Wright received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Louisiana State University. She is currently Professor of Studio Art at the University of Texas at Tyler. Wright exhibits her work nationally. Her work has been featured in publications including: Ceramics Monthly, the CFILE Foundation online journal, Re/constructing Atlanta by Cathy Byrd, and she is a member of the Art Axis Database. Studio art residencies have become a central part of Wright’s studio practice. She has completed studio residencies at The Banff Centre (2014 and 2020), Red Lodge Clay Center (2016 and 2019), c.r.e.t.a. Rome (2023) and most recently, the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts in Greece (2024).

Summary of Current Research

Merrie Wright’s recent work explores the idea of place and landscape, both real and imagined. She sees the landscape as a repository, containing experiences, memories, beliefs, and observations. It holds two realities, the tangible and the ephemeral, simultaneously. The landscape becomes a reflection of the sequence and rhythm of life - encompassing the vastness of geologic time, as well as the immediacy of a particular moment.

Time is of equal significance. The work begins before entering the studio or touching material, with a thoughtful investigation of her surroundings. It may take years before observations and responses to a place translate into form. The process of creating the work is equally time-intensive and meticulous. Each sculptural form is created and glazed by hand, with each layer of the process slowly building upon, and responding to, the one before it. Like strata, these physical and conceptual layers fuse, and the work becomes a record of what the landscape, and all the complexities that her relationship to it holds.  

For More Information

Wright does workshops and lectures for universities, art centers, and galleries. For more information or price inquiries/availability of works please send an email to merriewrightstudio@gmail.com.