/ WORK AVAILABLE BY
Meris Drew
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
︎ Inquire
Meris Drew (b. 1995) was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and holds an MFA in Painting from Indiana University. Her work is an inquiry into how the earth appears, the potential that lies within it, what it means and what we will make of it. Drew's paintings and ceramics, like the swampy Floridian landscape where the artist grew up, are places where volatile organic systems intersect, and are full of science, storytelling and magical thinking. Through nested cycles of painting and unpainting each canvas is a reenactment of the structures of nature flourishing and decaying from micro- to macrocosm.
The coalescing organic forms in Drew's paintings are echoed by the gestural markings scratched into her ceramics, the sgraffito emblazoning their glazed forms. These active surfaces show the artist's hand and process, lending them a loose immediacy and plasticity, and enhancing their physicality: a dynamic, shifting relationship that can only be fully perceived with careful looking, emerging from commingled passages.
“The mental universe in which these fragments of disparate places and times cohere and dissolve is a kind of garden to me. And like any garden it’s a space where what’s wild and sprawling is touched by human imagination, and in doing so is made different from and stranger than what it was." - Meris Drew
Drew’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Stellarhighway in Brooklyn, NY; Bottom Feeder Books in Pittsburgh, PA, Racecar Factory in Indianapolis, IN and Grunwald Gallery of Art in Bloomington, IN. Group presentations include those with John Waldron Arts Center, Bloomington, IN; My Pet Ram, New York, NY; Companion, Indianapolis, IN; Platform x David Zwirner; The Lodge, Los Angeles, CA; Schwitzer Gallery, Indianapolis, IN; Visionary Projects x New Collectors Gallery, New York, NY; Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX; University of Texas, Tyler, TX; University of North Carolina, Asheville, NC; Betty Isermann Gallery, Sarasota, FL; Artspace 111, Fort Worth, TX; Brew House Association, Pittsburgh, PA; and, Project Moné, New York, NY. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, residencies and grants, among them a Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship nomination, the Bloomington Emerging Artist Grant, a grant from the Ringholz Foundation, Bunker Projects Artist Residency in Pittsburgh, an Artlab artist residency at the University of Virginia’s Mountain Lake Biological Station and a Summer Rural Artist Residency from the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement. Her honors and awards include the Graduate Award in Support of Research and Creative Activity from Indiana University as well as the Reva Shiner Memorial Award and Chapter Career Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters in Bloomington. Drew previously taught painting and drawing at Indiana University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and is currently assistant professor at Syracuse University.
Presentations:
︎ Coordinates of Belonging at COMPANION
︎ Hold On To This Instead at COMPANION
︎ NADA New York 2025
︎ Two Years of Exhibitions at Bottom Feeder Books
︎ Whisper In The Roots at My Pet Ram
︎ the rift and the ring
︎ Platform
︎ Inquire
Meris Drew (b. 1995) was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and holds an MFA in Painting from Indiana University. Her work is an inquiry into how the earth appears, the potential that lies within it, what it means and what we will make of it. Drew's paintings and ceramics, like the swampy Floridian landscape where the artist grew up, are places where volatile organic systems intersect, and are full of science, storytelling and magical thinking. Through nested cycles of painting and unpainting each canvas is a reenactment of the structures of nature flourishing and decaying from micro- to macrocosm.
The coalescing organic forms in Drew's paintings are echoed by the gestural markings scratched into her ceramics, the sgraffito emblazoning their glazed forms. These active surfaces show the artist's hand and process, lending them a loose immediacy and plasticity, and enhancing their physicality: a dynamic, shifting relationship that can only be fully perceived with careful looking, emerging from commingled passages.
“The mental universe in which these fragments of disparate places and times cohere and dissolve is a kind of garden to me. And like any garden it’s a space where what’s wild and sprawling is touched by human imagination, and in doing so is made different from and stranger than what it was." - Meris Drew
Drew’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Stellarhighway in Brooklyn, NY; Bottom Feeder Books in Pittsburgh, PA, Racecar Factory in Indianapolis, IN and Grunwald Gallery of Art in Bloomington, IN. Group presentations include those with John Waldron Arts Center, Bloomington, IN; My Pet Ram, New York, NY; Companion, Indianapolis, IN; Platform x David Zwirner; The Lodge, Los Angeles, CA; Schwitzer Gallery, Indianapolis, IN; Visionary Projects x New Collectors Gallery, New York, NY; Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX; University of Texas, Tyler, TX; University of North Carolina, Asheville, NC; Betty Isermann Gallery, Sarasota, FL; Artspace 111, Fort Worth, TX; Brew House Association, Pittsburgh, PA; and, Project Moné, New York, NY. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, residencies and grants, among them a Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship nomination, the Bloomington Emerging Artist Grant, a grant from the Ringholz Foundation, Bunker Projects Artist Residency in Pittsburgh, an Artlab artist residency at the University of Virginia’s Mountain Lake Biological Station and a Summer Rural Artist Residency from the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement. Her honors and awards include the Graduate Award in Support of Research and Creative Activity from Indiana University as well as the Reva Shiner Memorial Award and Chapter Career Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters in Bloomington. Drew previously taught painting and drawing at Indiana University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and is currently assistant professor at Syracuse University.
Presentations:
︎ Coordinates of Belonging at COMPANION
︎ Hold On To This Instead at COMPANION
︎ NADA New York 2025
︎ Two Years of Exhibitions at Bottom Feeder Books
︎ Whisper In The Roots at My Pet Ram
︎ the rift and the ring
︎ Platform