Meredith Knight ( she/her/hers )

The spatial compositions, "Ebb and flow", "Embrace", and "Encircle" references textile patterns and architectonic structures. I grew up encircled by the comfort of homemade textiles and now surround others in similar ways. Those soft and fleeting moments are captured in ceramic form as a gesture to sensorial memories of warmth and belonging.

"Birthright" consists of two similar forms, each with differences that are surface deep. Both are blue on one side & purple on the reverse, showing a division between them based on how they are viewed. One is elevated for no apparent reason, reflecting on social privilege and questioning inequality.

“Underpinning” shows two iterations of a grid, one that is supported through connections and a second that has been stretched thin with no support, distorting the geometry. The work illustrates the consequences of social division and the lack of social support.

Referencing traditional quilting squares, "(Im)mutability" upholds the beauty of textiles while shifting the typically soft forms to hard blocks that can be rearranged. The shift questions the permanence of comfort & belonging while showing that if one formation is lost, a new pattern can be created.

The textile patterns including "Birds in Flight" illustrate freedom.

“Containment” illustrates a necessary physical restraint our society faced in 2020. As the interior is bursting out, a barrier is attempting to prevent transmission. Tension is seen as the form simultaneously illustrates a desire to connect with others and community health demands.

"A Brief History of Inequality in America", questions why differential treatment and division among individuals continues to exist. Access to opportunity, the right to move freely, and the ability to make life choices is unequal. The work illustrates an optimistic progression of increasing access.

"Breathe” shows four quadrants, two that are able to extend to full volume and two that have been suppressed and pushed down. The restrained quadrants suggest unjust treatment, questioning why justice and basic rights for all are not present.

Meredith Knight is currently Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Alabama State University. Previously, she was Manager of Studio Programs at the Birmingham Museum of Art. She also taught Sculpture and Ceramics at Auburn University Montgomery and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. After graduating summa cum laude with a BFA and then MFA in Sculpture from the University of Alabama, she worked to advocate for increased access to arts and education through her teaching and administrative work at Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project through Auburn University and Black Belt 100 Lenses Photovoice Program through the University of Alabama. Meredith serves on the Alabama Clay Conference steering committee and on the boards of the Alabama Visual Arts Network, Alabama Art Education Association, and the Montgomery Art Guild.Meredith balances teaching and administrative duties with an active studio practice and exhibition record, allowing each to inform the other. She regularly exhibits her work in national exhibitions, and also public art installations. Meredith has won awards for her artwork, and was an artist in residence at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts in Georgia.