ABOUT ELIZABETH MEGGS

Elizabeth Meggs is a Brooklyn-based artist, illustrator, writer, and designer, whose most recent work includes paintings, public art, and designs such as clocks. She attended Virginia Commonwealth University on a full academic scholarship, graduating summa cum laude with a BFA in Communication Arts and Design. She received her master's degree with distinction in Painting from Pratt Institute. She has worked as a graphic designer at Hearst's Victoria Magazine, as a writer at The Los Angeles Daily News, at Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn, as an instructor at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and as a faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University, Pratt Institute, and New York City College of Technology.

In the past decade, she has had five solo shows of new work, and exhibited in 75+ group shows, including Go Brooklyn! with the Brooklyn Museum, Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center, Hudson River Park in Chelsea, Sweet Lorraine Gallery, ISE Cultural Foundation, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Mariner's Museum, Firehouse Art Collective, Anderson Gallery, Target Gallery at the Torpedo Factory, Galapagos Art Space, Edward Hopper House, Pratt Institute's Steuben and Dean's Galleries, Gravity Racers at Pierogi Gallery, and more. 

Her recent essay about growing up with design historian Philip B. Meggs, titled "Life by Design: From Ephemeral to Historical," was published in the book Meggs: Making Graphic Design History, John Wiley & Sons. Recent publications include essay contributions to the Designers & Books website about "The Library of Philip B. Meggs and Libby Phillips Meggs" in which 16 books were profiled; Practice Makes Perfect: A Graphic Design Student’s Guide to Freelance; and writing and photography for TRUEQUE, a collaborative artists’ book project between artists in Copenhagen, Mexico City, Berlin, London, New York, and Rio de Janeiro; and 202021, a collaborative artists' book project for which she wrote the introduction, and essay for Art Spiel about this book and corresponding group exhibition.

Awards and honors include being selected to attend the NYC Center for Book Arts' Letterpress Printing & Fine Press Publishing Seminar for Emerging Writers; recipient of a Mellon Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship for Drawing in the State of Virginia; serving on the Leadership Council of the Pratt Artists' League; and as president of the Virginia Commonwealth University Illustrator's Club. Memberships include SCBWI (Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators), The Daguerreian Society, The Typophiles, College Art Association, and The Visual Lunacy Society. She is on the Advisory Board At Large for Black Gotham, which celebrates the underrepresented history of the African Diaspora in New York City, through walking tours, graphic novels, teen programs, and more.

During the darkest days of the Covid-19 pandemic, she created a HOPE poster design for the Hope Poster Wall in Richmond, Virginia, that was featured in Print Magazine's "The Daily Heller." Also during the pandemic, her "Care Squares" t-shirt designs raised funds to provide more than 3,000 meals via Feeding America.

"Troco Rio," a sound installation, including her piece titled "Stand Clear," was recently played in the street markets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As part of the New York City Sing for Hope public pianos program, a piano she designed, painted, and named "Octavia Upright," was placed outdoors in Manhattan in Hudson River Park in Chelsea and Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center, for the public to play.

In 2021, she was one of 78 artists selected to create a cow for CowParade New York City. The cow she designed and painted, was titled "I LOVE MOO YORK," and sold at auction for $17,000, with 100% of profits going to benefit the charity God's Love We Deliver. CowParade NYC was featured in the New York Times and a variety of media outlets. Her cow was selected as the number 6 favorite cow out of 78 cows, by Time Out New York.

In 2022, she was selected as one of ten artists in New York City to create an ice sculpture for the Inaugural Governors Island Ice Sculpture Exhibition, and was awarded the Carver's Choice trophy from the renowned ice sculptors at Okamato Studio.

 In 2022, she was one of 20 observers selected to be on-site on September 26, 2022 at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA’s DART Mission spacecraft-asteroid collision, humankind's first ever test of planetary defense. Forthcoming work inspired by observing this historic event will be shared on www.elizabethmeggs.com, www.meggspaintings.com, and on social media at @elizabethmeggs and @meggspaintings.