Memphis Material

Memphis Material
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An oral history project chronicling the stories of the visual arts in Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis Material is a podcast celebrating the personal histories, intimate stories, and the studio practices of some of the people who help shape the creative landscape of our city.

  1. Lawrence Matthews Part 2

    1D AGO

    Lawrence Matthews Part 2

    Born and raised in a lower middle class neighborhood fixed between the Mississippi border, the Memphis city limits and the well off suburbia; Lawrence Matthews’ early life was lived in places, ignored, forgotten and in the liminal interiors of southern family homes and spaces. His life and work exist as an extension of the southern gothic voices with whom he is aligned. He emerges as somewhat of a Morrisonian beloved ghost, a child who desired more. Now, fully grown as a manifestation of his environment’s love and bitterness intertwined. With a BFA from The University of Memphis and a decade long career exhibiting, performing and working with various arts nonprofits, his work in nearly every area of the arts is an amalgamation of his whole life. Visually inspired by Parks, Eggleston, and the regionalistic mythology of Paul Thomas Anderson and early Spike Lee; Matthews’ own visuals weave African spirituality with the Christian mythology that permeates the region. While working as a musician he’d create with the rap, soul and alternative rock references he’d come in contact with through his upbringing. His artistic practice highlights the deep relationship between the often maligned spiritual connections Black people have explored for generations, creating a hauntingly familiar but surreal experience.

    1h 47m
  2. Lawrence Matthews Part 1

    MAY 1

    Lawrence Matthews Part 1

    Born and raised in a lower middle class neighborhood fixed between the Mississippi border, the Memphis city limits and the well off suburbia; Lawrence Matthews’ early life was lived in places, ignored, forgotten and in the liminal interiors of southern family homes and spaces. His life and work exist as an extension of the southern gothic voices with whom he is aligned. He emerges as somewhat of a Morrisonian beloved ghost, a child who desired more. Now, fully grown as a manifestation of his environment’s love and bitterness intertwined. With a BFA from The University of Memphis and a decade long career exhibiting, performing and working with various arts nonprofits, his work in nearly every area of the arts is an amalgamation of his whole life. Visually inspired by Parks, Eggleston, and the regionalistic mythology of Paul Thomas Anderson and early Spike Lee; Matthews’ own visuals weave African spirituality with the Christian mythology that permeates the region. While working as a musician he’d create with the rap, soul and alternative rock references he’d come in contact with through his upbringing. His artistic practice highlights the deep relationship between the often maligned spiritual connections Black people have explored for generations, creating a hauntingly familiar but surreal experience.

    1h 40m
  3. Patricia Lee Daigle Part 2

    APR 24

    Patricia Lee Daigle Part 2

    Patricia Lee Daigle is Chief Curator at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (MBMA), where she leads the curatorial department and specializes in modern and contemporary art. Prior to this role, she served as MBMA Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art between 2021 and 2025. At MBMA, she has curated numerous exhibitions including Suchitra Mattai: with abundance we meet (2025), Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative (2023), and Tommy Kha: Eye is Another (2023). She has also served as site curator for traveling exhibitions such as Christian Siriano: People Are People (organized by SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film) and Black American Portraits (organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art). From 2015-2020, Patricia was Director of The Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art at The University of Memphis, organizing solo exhibitions featuring the work of Virginia Overton, Jefferson Pinder, Umar Rashid, and others. She has also held curatorial positions at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Patricia has written for numerous exhibition catalogues and other publications. She holds a Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a specialization in race and representation in twentieth-century American art.

    1h 45m
  4. Patricia Lee Daigle Part 1

    APR 17

    Patricia Lee Daigle Part 1

    Patricia Lee Daigle is Chief Curator at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (MBMA), where she leads the curatorial department and specializes in modern and contemporary art. Prior to this role, she served as MBMA Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art between 2021 and 2025. At MBMA, she has curated numerous exhibitions including Suchitra Mattai: with abundance we meet (2025), Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative (2023), and Tommy Kha: Eye is Another (2023). She has also served as site curator for traveling exhibitions such as Christian Siriano: People Are People (organized by SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film) and Black American Portraits (organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art). From 2015-2020, Patricia was Director of The Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art at The University of Memphis, organizing solo exhibitions featuring the work of Virginia Overton, Jefferson Pinder, Umar Rashid, and others. She has also held curatorial positions at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Patricia has written for numerous exhibition catalogues and other publications. She holds a Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a specialization in race and representation in twentieth-century American art.

    1h 46m
  5. Tracy Lauritzen Wright Part 2

    APR 10

    Tracy Lauritzen Wright Part 2

    Tracy Lauritzen Wright is Chief Operating Officer at ARTSmemphis, a Local Arts Agency supporting the arts to strengthen the community.  She administers $3.4M+ in grants to 90 arts organizations and artists annually.  She has 25 years’ experience in museums and cultural organizations, including 14 years at the National Civil Rights Museum.  She served as Executive Director of Delta Axis, a contemporary art and film organization, was a founding board member for Indie Memphis Film Festival and served on the Board of the Tennessee Association of Museums.  Her current focus is on strengthening local communities through the arts, by expanding ARTSmemphis support to more artists and organizations, and connecting community partners with arts organizations.

    54 min
  6. Tracy Lauritzen Wright Part 1

    APR 3

    Tracy Lauritzen Wright Part 1

    Tracy Lauritzen Wright is Chief Operating Officer at ARTSmemphis, a Local Arts Agency supporting the arts to strengthen the community.  She administers $3.4M+ in grants to 90 arts organizations and artists annually.  She has 25 years’ experience in museums and cultural organizations, including 14 years at the National Civil Rights Museum.  She served as Executive Director of Delta Axis, a contemporary art and film organization, was a founding board member for Indie Memphis Film Festival and served on the Board of the Tennessee Association of Museums.  Her current focus is on strengthening local communities through the arts, by expanding ARTSmemphis support to more artists and organizations, and connecting community partners with arts organizations.

    1h 37m
  7. Paula Kovarik

    MAR 28

    Paula Kovarik

    From Paula Kovarik’s amazing website: Paula Kovarik creates art with stitch and fabric. Her intuitive line work travels the surface of her work as if a meditation has become solid. Inward thoughts become outwardly apparent through slow and studied attention to detail. Kovarik’s award-winning fiber art has been recognized by Quilt National, Quilts=Art=Quilts, World of Threads, and FiberArt Now Excellence in Fibers exhibitions. She has been profiled in American CraftandFiberArt Nowmagazines. Her work is featured inArt Quilts Unfolding – 50 Years of InnovationandArt Quilts International Abstract & Geometric.Kovarik shares her ideas and techniques in workshops and in her book,At Play in the Garden of Stitch. Her work has been collected by the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, NE and the International Airport in Memphis, TN as well as several private collections. Kovarik lives and works in Memphis, TN.

    1h 54m
  8. Niles Wallace Part 2

    MAR 20

    Niles Wallace Part 2

    From Niles Wallace’s webiste: I was born in Western Pennsylvania in 1948.  My serious interest in Art began in high school and extended to college.  I graduated from Edinboro State University of Pennsylvania in 1970 with a degree in Art Education.  At Edinboro I became interested in Ceramics and subsequently attended graduate school at Alfred University, Alfred, NY, where I studied under Val Cushing, Daniel Rhodes, Robert Turner, Ted Randall, and Wayne Higby.  I received my MFA in Ceramics in 1974.  After short teaching stints at The Philadelphia College of Art, and The State University of New York at Albany, I began teaching Ceramics at Memphis State University, which later became The University of Memphis. For the past fifteen years my work has focused on mixed media sculpture.  Since 2012 I have focused on Stoneware ceramic bowls as paintings. My work has been exhibited nationally and is included in many private and corporate collections. My parents were divorced when I was quite young and my older sister and I lived with my Mother and my Grandparents. My Grandfather was a barber who never seemed able to adapt to changing hairstyles. He insisted on cutting men’s hair in the 1960’s the same way he did in the 1940’s. Consequently his clientele was dying out and he never made much money.  He was a devout Union man and active Democrat who vehemently railed against inequalities for the workingman.  He was cantankerous and hard to live with. His shop was attached to our house so he was always home. My Grandmother worked at home as a seamstress to make extra money.  She was warm and loving, baked bread once a week, canned vegetables, and always drank one beer before going to bed.  Here I was exposed to the fruits and frustrations of people who worked with their hands. My Mother worked as a Presbyterian church secretary for over twenty years. Though she often struggled with self-doubt, her faith and her belief in her children seemed to enable her to move ahead.  I now find it amazing that she was able to be the main provider for a family of five on a secretary’s salary, and still send two children to college.  She was a beautiful woman who always looked twenty years younger than her true age.  Though she dated and loved dancing, she never remarried until she was in her seventies. My sister is four years older than I.  She is outgoing, smart, popular, feisty, and was the homecoming queen.   Strong women, the motivation of faith, the ability to work with what was available, and not to waste anything, have been recurring influences in my life and work. In college I learned that materials have a life of their own.  I became familiar with pottery vessels and the importance of what is inside and not seen.  The object is you, and it is that idea. Concept gives meaning.  We all must believe that things will get better; that we will find what we are looking for, that our dreams have importance, that all things will converge on the horizon.  It is this faith that I try to address as I work.

    1h 43m
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5
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About

An oral history project chronicling the stories of the visual arts in Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis Material is a podcast celebrating the personal histories, intimate stories, and the studio practices of some of the people who help shape the creative landscape of our city.

Information

  • Creator
    Memphis Material
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    62
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Memphis Material

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