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As an artist, I want you to care about something as much as I care. To do that I make work that is at the same time familiar, and a bit strange – mysterious and, I hope, poetic. I want the work to be accessible on numerous levels.

I attempt that through the selection of materials, treatment of form, use of subject matter and the method of presentation. I remain conscious of how my work rubs up to art across time and how it is informed by that history. The sculptural objects and installations I have produced refer to topics as varied as High Modernism, topical issues, the landscape – both physical and cultural – as well as music, jokes and cartoons.

I have consistently attempted to combine art historical references with vernacular influences. As a native of the rural south, I have a tremendous respect for work that is made by the hand and guided by the heart and eye. But I also understand the importance of the mind in this process. To state my approach to the making of art in the simplest and most direct manner, I have used these – the hand, the eye, the heart and the mind.

 – Greely Myatt, 2016

Greely Myatt was born in Mississippi. He currently lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee, where he is Professor of Art at The University of Memphis. His sculptures and installations have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the United States, Europe and Japan.

He has received grants and fellowships from the Tennessee Arts Commission, The University of Memphis, The University of Georgia, Alternate Roots, Atlanta, and received the Mississippi Arts and Letters Visual Arts Award in 1994. Myatt was an exchange artist to Israel in 1998. In 2009, works from twenty years of living and working in Memphis were exhibited across the city in nine separate venues. In 2011, he was invited to Island Press at Washington University, St. Louis to produce prints.

His work has been reviewed in Art in America, ArtNews, Sculpture Magazine, ArtForum, Art Papers, Number, Juxtapoz and American Quilter. Represented by Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, and David Lusk Gallery, Memphis and Nashville, his work is in numerous private and public collections. He is currently working on a public project for Urban Arts in Memphis, TN.