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About Perry Meigs

My work explores how the body comes to know a place, and how walking, touching, and returning become ways of understanding a landscape from the inside. My work begins on foot. Walking is both research and a way of finding my place in the world—physically, conceptually, and in a way I can only call spiritual. As I trace routes through a landscape, the emotional life I carry with me becomes inseparable from the terrain. Experiences become embedded there until the landscape becomes a repository of lived experience.

 

Returning becomes a form of remembering. I learned this way of moving through the world from my grandparents, aunts, and uncles in Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Valley. I later passed that love of landscape on to my own children through repeated family trips to Yosemite. Walking the same trails and stitching them by hand into raw linen has become a way of holding onto that time. Through painting, collage, stitched thread, drawing, and video, I transform GPS-tracked movement, maps, photographs, collected materials, and color into layered abstractions. My practice is ultimately a way of finding home: moving through a landscape, observing it, and returning until the landscape begins to hold me.

Bio:

Perry Meigs is a painter and interdisciplinary artist whose work begins on foot. For Meigs, walking is both research and a way of knowing. She traces routes through landscapes, using them as structural frameworks for mapping movement, memory, and belonging. Her practice spans painting, drawing, collage, digital imagery, stitched thread, and video.

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Meigs received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions in Los Angeles, Art in General in New York, and the International Experimental Video Festival in Arnhem. She has participated in artist residencies at Skowhegan, the Cubberley Artist Studio Program, and Kala Art Institute. She is also a recipient of an ArtLift Micro-Grant from the City of Palo Alto. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

Exhibitions​​​​

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2026

  • Charting Presence, Wissahickon Valley, Laete Gallery, Philadelphia, PA SOLO

  • Mapping From the Ground: Yosemite National Park, Rinconda Gallery, Palo Alto, CA SOLO

  • FEM-minis, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA

  • Mapping Time, Mercury 20, Oakland, CA 

  • Super Hunger Anti-Valentine Bowl Games Part LX, Works, San Jose, CA

  • "Shadows of Winter Light", Silicon Valley Visual Arts Exhibit, Burlingame, CA

 

2025

  • 7th Annual Sanchez Art Center 50|50 Show 50/50, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA

  • Mending and Marvels, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA

  • Works/San José’s 2025 Community Art Auction, San José, CA

  • 103rd Anniversary Exhibit, Pacific Arts League, Palo Alto, CA
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2024

  • Boundaries, New Museum Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA

  • Lands and Symbiotic Futures, Women Eco Artist Dialog, Kunstmatrix

  • Tierra y Raíces/Earth and Roots, Mexican Heritage Plaza, San Jose, CA

  • The Anti Valentine's Show, Works San José, San José, CA
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2023

  • Mapping Palo Alto, Rinconada Library Display Space, Palo Alto, CA SOLO

  • Art in the Garden, Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden, Palo Alto, CA

  • Pets and Animals, Pacific Arts League, Palo Alto, CA

  • P.A.L. Members Curated Exhibit, Palo Alto, CA
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2022

  • Mapping Palo Alto Together, Rinconada, Mitchell Park, Downtown Library, Palo Alto, CA  SOLO​
     

2018-2021

  • Flags, Skowhegan Block Party, New York, NY

  • Like Birds of a Feather, Town and Country Village, Palo Alto, CA

  • Insights from my Garden, Claremont Art Studios, San Mateo, CA

  • Silicon Valley Group, Claremont Art Studios, San Mateo, CA

  • Gallery Group, The Rye Art Center, Rye, NY

  • Painters on Location, The Rye Art Center, Rye, NY

  • The Valentine Show, Kenise Barnes Gallery, Larchmont, NY
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2013 & Earlier (Selected)

  • Hudson Valley Artists, The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY

  • RISD Biennial, Claire Olivia Fine Art, New York, NY

  • To Be Continued…, Art in General, New York, NY

  • To Be Continued…, Bellwether Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

  • Identity and the Home, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

  • Whose Body is it? Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA

  • Special Feature U.S.A., The International Experimental Video Festival, Arnhem, The Netherlands

 

 

RESIDENCIES

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  • Idaho BaseCamp Artist Residency,  Ketchum, ID

  • Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, NY

  • Cubberley Artist Studio Program Residency, Palo Alto, CA

  • The Experimental Television Center, Oswego, NY

 

 

CURATORIAL & PUBLIC ART PROJECTS

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  • "Art in the Garden" Program – Organized a community art event at Elizabeth Gamble Garden, Palo Alto, CA (2004), showcasing contemporary Silicon Valley artists in an interactive outdoor exhibition.

  • "Mapping Palo Alto Together" – Led a public engagement art project funded by the ArtLift Microgrant from the City of Palo Alto (2022-2023), exploring community identity through collaborative art-making.

 

 

TEACHING & WORKSHOPS (Selected)
 

San Francisco Art Fair, San Francisco, CA 2026

  • Designed and taught curriculum for artist Jeremy Deller, “Life drawing of a Caregiver.”

Crystal Springs Uplands School, Belmont, CA (2019–2026)
Middle School Visual Arts Teacher

Designed and taught curriculum across drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and ceramics

  • Led 2D and 3D foundations courses for grades 6–8
    Managed the art studio, including ordering materials, organizing supplies, and overseeing the departmental budget
    Coordinated student exhibitions and facilitated classroom critiques
     

St. Bernard’s School, New York, NY (2014–2019)
Visual Arts Teacher, Grades 6–9

  • Taught a comprehensive visual arts curriculum to middle school and 9th-grade boys

  • Developed lessons in drawing, painting, sculpture, and mixed media

  • Managed the art room and oversaw materials and budget

  • Curated the annual all-school student art exhibition
     

Visiting Artist & Professor, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, RI (2009–2010)

  • Led senior seminars in video art and editing

  • Presented professional work and mentored students on thesis projects

Professor, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, RI (2003-2004)

  • Taught production studio classes for junior-year film/video majors.

Instructor, Parsons School of Design (SOPIS Program), New York, NY (2002-2003)

  • Taught figure drawing and perspective to international college students.

Instructor, Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY (2000-2001)

Taught painting to museum students.

 

 

PUBLICATIONS (Selected)

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  • "Palo Alto Funds Art to Unify Community," Olivia Atkinson, The Campanile, October 24, 2022

  • "Palo Alto Public Art Tells Stories Both Collective and Personal," Anne Li, Stanford University Online, November 2022

  • "Pandemic Solutions," JD Beltran, Vas Newsletter, February 27, 2021

  • "For Hikers Seeking Art," Brooklyn is a Left Bank, The New York Times, December 15, 2000

  • "Color Me Mine," New Art Examiner, 1998

  • "Color Me Mine at LACE," L.A. Weekly, April 3-9, 1998

  • "Taking Chances with Forms and Ideas," Nomad, Number 6, Spring 1994

 

 

PROFESSIONAL ART & MEDIA EXPERIENCE

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  • NBC Universal Studios, Video Editor, Dateline & The Today Show, New York, NY (2001-2013)

  • NBC Universal Studios, Media Manager, (2001-2008)

  • WNET, Assistant Editor, Bill Moyers Now, New York, NY (1999-2003)

  • Marc Foxx Gallery, Assistant, Los Angeles, CA 1998

  • Manny Silverman Gallery, Assistant, Los Angeles, CA 1998

  • Allan Stone Gallery, Assistant, New York, NY

  • Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum, Video Art Curator, Providence, RI (1993-1994)

 

 

EDUCATION

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  • M.F.A., California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA

  • B.F.A., Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

 

 

TECHNICAL SKILLS

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  • Video & Digital Media: Final Cut Pro, Avid, Adobe Premiere, Photoshop

  • Public Art & Exhibition Design: Site-Specific Installation Planning, Video Projection Mapping

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