Exhibitions
TAD LAURITZEN WRIGHT: BETWEEN A THOUGHT AND A THING
David Lusk Gallery Memphis / 97 Tillman St. January 2, 2020 - February 8, 2020
Tad Lauritzen Wright
Experiments with process and possibility form the basis of Tad Lauritzen Wright’s practice, as they have for the past several decades. He employs consistent motifs and symbols along with a sprawling variety of treatments in paintings, works on paper and sculptural installations. Oscillating between improvisation and control, he mixes graphic geometry and patterning with heavy brushwork, hand-lettered text, personified objects, childlike imagery, shocking colors, and fantastic scale and perspectives. Enmeshing himself and the viewer in playful sensory games, joy and possibility arise from each composition. Wright’s grid foundations become spaces for collaboration among forms and operate as analytic puzzles. His one-line drawings are elaborate time-based games growing from simplicity to complexity, open to risk and the challenge of limits. His use of text and language as form allow for direct accessibility and a range of interpretations from the viewer -- whether delight or disgust. Through the process of blurring and defying conventions of art and craft, roles of the artist and viewer, and traditional uses of media and form, Wright remixes a whole new visual language.
Tad Lauritzen Wright, a Texan, received an MFA from Memphis College of Art and a BFA from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Over the past twenty years, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the United States, including Coop Gallery, Nashville; Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville; Anderson O’Brien Fine Art, Omaha; Koelsch Gallery, Houston; Cheryl Hazen Gallery, New York; Cuevas Tilleard Gallery, New York; ACME Gallery, Los Angeles; Millsaps College, Jackson; Arkansas State University, Jonesboro; Pulse Art Fair, Miami; Next Art Fair, Chicago; Brooks Museum, Memphis; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis; and the New Orleans Museum of Art. He has completed two (?) public installations through the Urban Art Commission in Memphis. His work is in a number of collections including the Tamarind Printmaking Institute, Albuquerque; Fidelity Investments, Boston; The Children's Museum, Memphis; the City of Memphis; Hallmark Collection, Kansas City, MO; Memphis/Shelby County Library and Information Center-Collierville; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; and the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock. He is one half of the Mellow Mountain Coalition, making collaborative, impromptu, figurative abstractions with fellow DLG artist Hamlett Dobbins.
