Tad Lauritzen Wright was born in 1972 in San Angelo, Texas. He now lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee.Lauritzen Wright is interested in generating an impromptu reaction to an idea, thought, or experience. He is attracted to artwork that comes from discounted sources. He takes basic ideas, simple plans, and rigorous daydreaming to an extreme in the work, always attempting to elevate ideas and observations. Experiments with materials and process is key to much of the work whether it be in the form of single line drawings, mixed media paintings, or simplistic sculpture. Non-traditional approaches to painting as well as traditional sit side-by-side, craft and hobby projects are elevated to art status, and icons of the past become poised for new interpretations in Lauritzen Wright’s work.Lauritzen Wright’s work has been shown extensively throughout the United States including venues like the Katonah Museum of Art in New York, the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Scope Miami, Art LA, Bridge Chicago, and Pulse NYC. He has had recent exhibitions with the Cheryl Hazan Gallery in New York, David Lusk Gallery in Memphis and Nashville, Cuevas Tilleard Gallery in New York, Koelsch Gallery in Houston, and at ACME Gallery in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in New American Paintings 5 times, most recently as the artist on the cover of the magazine.Lauritzen Wright has worked as an art professor for the last 16 years teaching at the Memphis College of Art and the University of Memphis before joining the faculty at Southwest Tennessee Community College."Within my work scratches, symbols and markings serve as documentation of American culture. I venture to bring my collected observations to life through awkward, childlike renderings of myth, culture, survival, history, and identity, creating a thought provoking visual experience through the medium of distorted common materials. Playful images are used to reflect a sympathetic approach to life and an understanding of the independent components of each person as well as the collected whole. I regard my art as a living document, visual poetry, philosophy, experience, and the highest expression of honor that can be granted." - Tad Lauritzen Wright