Elizabeth Meggs

Elizabeth Meggs is a Brooklyn-based artist, illustrator, writer, and designer, whose most recent work includes paintings, photography, imagery for children, and hand-bound artist books. She graduated summa cum laude with a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and received her MFA 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 a faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University, and now as a faculty member at Pratt Institute and New York City College of Technology.

Exhibitions include 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 Dean's Gallery, “Go Brooklyn!” with the Brooklyn Museum,  and Gravity Racers at Pierogi Gallery, among others.

Her essay about life with her father, graphic design historian Philip B. Meggs, titled “Life By Design: From Ephemeral to Historical,” was published in the book Meggs: Making Graphic Design History. Recent publications include essay contributions to 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.

Awards and honors include being selected to attend New York’s Center for Book Arts’ Letterpress Printing & Fine Press Publishing Seminar for Emerging Writers; recipient of a Mellon Grant; 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.

Meggs is a member of 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.

“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 the Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center for the public to play.