about the artists
In the spring of 2008, Hamlett Dobbins and Tad Lauritzen Wright bought two nice, big Holbein sketchbooks to share. In the spirit of friendship they traded these books back and forth for many years. One of them would start a drawing, laying down a riff, and the other would respond following the other’s lead. Once their kids are dropped off at school, the two hole up in the sweet little studio behind Tad's house. They listen to loud music, tell each other inappropriate stories, and paint together. In the winter of 2015 they had their first solo show a Glitch, an alternative space in Memphis. Since then, under the name Mellow Mountain Coalition, the duo has shown at Whitespec in Atlanta and Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia.
A native of Tennessee, Hamlett Dobbins spent most of his life in Memphis. For the last fifteen years Dobbins has been active in the art community in Memphis working as a curator, a writer, and a teacher. From 2001 to 2013 he was the director of the Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College where he also taught. From 2004 to 2013 he ran a non-commercial alternative space called Material where he provided exhibition opportunities for nearly a hundred artists. He currently works as the Director of Foundations at the University of Memphis
Tad Lauritzen Wright grew up in San Angelo, Texas consuming rodeo, punk rock, Playboy, cheap beer, shotguns, cartoons, farm trucks, skateboarding, Mexican border towns, and junkyard culture. Art came in the form of crappy posters won at the rodeo carnival ring toss, velvet posters of heavy metal bands, and handmade cowboy boots. Art did not exist until he was surrounded by high school stoners making homemade bongs. Lauritzen Wright saw a teacup covered in fur in a picture in art class and thought he could make art if that was really art. He has since learned a great deal more about art, but has stayed connected to his own history. His work has been shown extensively throughout the United States including venues like the Katonah Museum of Art in New York, the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Scope Miami, Art LA, Bridge Chicago, and Pulse NYC.
