Greely Myatt
Greely Myatt is widely recognized for his whimsical sculptural objects and monumental installations made from found materials. Through relationships and connections between genres and styles, notably surrealism, pop, and folk and outsider art, he develops a compelling visual language of scale and site, identity and place, and art and its history.
Small Talk group; Small Talk, reclaimed wood, steel and air, 9.5x11x5”, 2014
Such as the Wind-Flower, reclaimed metal and air, 50x90x3”, 2022
For many decades, he has incorporated cutout shapes, and, in turn, shadows, into his work. Thought clouds in comic strips, hexagons cut out of square tables (rendering them useless), rebar speech bubble arches, and plastercast ice cream scoops on stiff wooden cones trick your eye and expectation.
Veil, install and detail shots, 2022
Better Than a Stick in the Eye, cedar, alabaster, pecan wood, vine, steel, 21x15x5”, 2022
Kataegis, reclaimed metal and air, 33x36x2”, 2022
In addition to installations and exhibitions that continue Myatt’s practice of using reclaimed materials and repurposed objects, Myatt also is a creator of public art. His projects include kinetic sculptures in Memphis, TN, metal quilts in Bentonville, AR, and totems in Huntsville, AL.
Fluttering Quilts, Osage Park, Bentonville, AR, 2021
Snuff Can, Conway Flats, Memphis, TN, 2023
Greely Myatt was born in Mississippi, teaches in Memphis, and lives and works in West Memphis, AR. He received an MFA from the University of Mississippi and a BFA from Delta State University, Cleveland, MS, and was a long-time professor of art at The University of Memphis. He has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the United States, Europe and Japan. He has received numerous grants and fellowships and received the Mississippi Arts and Letters Visual Arts Award in 1994. In 2009, a twenty-year retrospective of his works was exhibited across Memphis in nine museum and gallery venues. His work is in numerous private collections and the following public collections: City of Memphis; City of Portland, ME; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Memphis Cook Convention Center; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson; Tennessee State Museum, Nashville; Tennessee Brewery, Memphis; Tennessee Interstate Sculpture Project, Hartford; and Urban Art Commission, Memphis. POINTING FINGERS AND FLINGING BRICKS follows a busy 2021 with two museum exhibitions, outdoor sculpture projects, and a DLG Memphis solo installation.