Artist Reception
Edward H. Perry: American Original
Venue: Patrick Lawton Lobby
Friday, September 26
5:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Visual Arts Exhibitions are brought to you by our good friends at SouthWorth Capital Management.
Join us in the Patrick Lawton Lobby for an Artist Reception and Review by Keith Sykes
The reception and review are free and all are welcome.
ON VIEW SEPTEMBER 8 THROUGH OCTOBER 22
Edward H. Perry Bio:
Edward Hagen Perry (July 18, 1947-March 25, 2007) was an intensely-focused visual artist who created thousands of two and three-dimensional works of art, oftentimes using multi-media in the same composition or incorporating electronic circuitry and laser technology into the piece to bring his ideas to reality.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1947, he came to Memphis in 1967, taking classes at Southwestern of Memphis (Rhodes College) and pursuing a degree at the Memphis Academy of Art (Memphis College of Art). He graduated from the Art Academy in 1971 with a Master of Fine Arts degree and moved briefly to the Washington, D.C. area.
An early disciple of utilizing laser technology in the creation of art, Perry worked with fellow artist Rockne Krebs, installing laser pieces in the CNN headquarters in Atlanta and other venues around the country in the 1970's, as well as working for the University of Cincinnati in the medical research laser lab department. In the early 1980’s he returned home to his family's farm in Louisville, converting the old barn into a work studio and living quarters. There he continued drawing, painting, sculpting and began building intricate frames for many of the his paintings, using old discarded bits of wood he would find on trips out into the countryside.
After the death of his mother in the early 1990’s, Perry used his share of the family estate to purchase a home about 70 miles southwest of Louisville in Stephensport, Kentucky, where he focused most of his efforts on woodworking. Ed spent hours building scale-model river tow boats and sailboats as well as hand-crafting specially-designed mailboxes and carving fish, duck and other wildlife replicas. Many of these he simply gave away to friends and acquaintances, as Ed was never the one to profit from his work but rather to share it with the the people he cared about. He died alone at his home in Stephensport on March 25, 2007, from respiratory problems that had begun back in the early 70's .
His originality is undeniable, as evidenced by the enormous breadth and scope of his work. His distinctive work ethic kept him busy in thought, process and execution throughout his entire life. However, his outright contempt for the corporate side of the art world resulted in very few public showings of his art; had his work ever come to the attention of art critics and other influential patrons of the arts, it's quite possible Ed Perry may have become well known. But that never came to pass. At the end of his life, Perry was taking odd jobs to make ends meet, borrowing money from friends to pay the bills, but never once deviating from his commitment to his art. He dearly loved discussing politics, swapping stories with old friends, listening to Bob Dylan and working morning to night on whatever project he was focusing on at the moment.
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