The current exhibit featured at the Meridian Museum of Art is the Mississippi Art Colony Fall Traveling Exhibit and works by well established ceramicist, Byron Myrick.

    The exhibit will be on display until Jan. 28 with a gallery reception for the artists on Jan. 14, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. with a gallery talk at 7 p.m.

    The Mississippi Art Colony was founded in 1948, and is listed by the Smithsonian Institute as the country’s oldest artist-run organization of its kind. The primary goal of the Colony is to provide an environment for individual and professional growth and development for visual artists through fellowship. Since its founding, the Colony has served painters who want to concentrate on their art for a few days each year with the help of their peers and the experienced advice of instructors from around the country. In addition, the Colony works towards the education of the public on art and artists in Mississippi and the surrounding states through the semi-annual travel show exhibition.

    For more than 50 years, the Colony has provided ideas and creative stimulation that have helped to create in Mississippi an incomparable interest in art. The outreach of the artists and their exhibited works have had an influence on schools, teachers, and artists throughout the South.

    Workshops are intensive five day courses conducted twice a year during the end of April and September at Camp Henry Jacobs in Utica. Artists attend from all corners of the Southeast. The travel show features juror-selected works of members. Works range from abstract to figurative to photo-realistic paintings. The juried show, along with the award winners, are selected at each workshop and travel throughout Mississippi and the surrounding states.

    Artists Included in this exhibit are: Beverly Dennis; Sheryl Southwick; Elke Briuer; Saradel Berry; Cathy Hegman; Cheryl McClure; George Ann McCullough; Kat Fitzpatrick; Martha Andre’; Elke Briuer; Larry Bustin; Terri Cribb; Denise Dengler; Sandra Halat; Harriet Lenoir; Judy MacInnis; George Ann McCullough; Roberta Rainwater; Susie Ranager; Norma Seward; and Richard Stephens.

    Byron Myrick’s work in this exhibit is from a series called “Quilted.” The series is influenced from two directions. The first is a fascination with reconstructive archaeological findings of vessels seen in museums. The second is the quilt, a part of the Southern heritage constructed from many parts to make a whole, as functional as well as a decorative object.

    The works are thrown on the potters wheel as well as hand built. The work is then bisque fired and carefully broken.

    “I never know how this is going to turn out. Then I lay out the shards and assign color, pattern, texture and marks to each piece. The shards are then glazed and fired using a technique called Raku or post firing reduction. This technique further enhances the surface and colors of the shards. The piece is then put back together using a strong epoxy. The results are vessels that are unique in appearance,” Myrick said.