Mississippi native Bryce Speed to showcase works at Casteel Gallery
Artist Bryce Speed is returning to his home state to share his creative vision with a new exhibit at Meridian Community College’s Casteel Gallery. Works by Bryce Speed opens Oct. 2 and runs through Oct. 30, with a closing reception scheduled for Oct. 30 from 3-5 p.m.
Speed, born in Hattiesburg in 1978, has spent more than two decades building a career that has taken his art around the country and overseas. He earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and drawing from the University of Mississippi in 1999 and went on to complete a master of fine arts in painting from the University of Alabama in 2005.
Since then, his work has been featured in exhibitions from New York to Scotland, including shows at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, the Visual Art Exchange’s Contemporary South Exhibition in North Carolina, and the North Wall Arts Center in Oxford, United Kingdom. In 2022, his paintings were included in shows in both London and Nashville. His work has also appeared in New American Paintings and was spotlighted as one of Artnet.com’s top virtual exhibitions in 2020.
Currently an associate professor of art at the University of Alabama, Speed continues to explore the connection between abstraction and representation in his paintings. His works often combine structure, nostalgia, and memory into visual languages that invite viewers to look deeper.
“The natural world provides many visual analogies for the great depth and mysteries of the human mind,” Speed said about his approach. “Painting can connect form and idea in a way that is unique to the medium, and I try to embrace this possibility in my work.”
The Casteel Gallery is located in MCC’s Davidson Fine Arts Center in Ivy-Scaggs Hall. Hours are Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and by appointment by emailing ttaylor@meridiancc.edu.
For more information, visit meridiancc.edu/casteelgallery.