“Weaver,” 2023, borosilicate, helium, candles, transformer, 20 x 12 x 14 in. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Teaching Artist Cohort
2025
Meryl Pataky is a multidisciplinary artist and educator whose work explores care, labor, and embodiment through materials with deep cultural and historical resonance. Working primarily in neon, glass, and metal—mediums traditionally associated with industry and masculinity—she reclaims them as vessels of memory and contradiction to reveal neon’s unstable, breathing presence. Her sculptures often reflect the arc of motherhood and matrescence, using light as both material and metaphor to express the invisible labor of care.
Teaching is central to her practice. For over a decade, Pataky has taught sculpture and neon in academic and community settings, emphasizing hands-on learning, material literacy, and the therapeutic value of making. She is the founder of She Bends, a platform supporting underrepresented artists in neon through mentorship, residencies, and exhibitions. Across all her roles—as artist, mentor, and mother—she champions process over product and believes deeply in the power of craft to foster connection, agency, and healing.
Selected works
“Invocation Through Fabrication: Key of Solomon,” 2018 & 2023, soft glass, neon, helium, argon, transformers, 8 ft. Photo courtesy of the artist.
“Ru'ach (spirit, breath),” 2021, soft glass, neon, candles, transformer, 23 x 16 x 10 in. Photo courtesy of the artist.
“Weaver,” 2023, borosilicate, helium, candles, transformer, 20 x 12 x 14 in. Photo courtesy of the artist.
“A Modern Guilt (featuring collaboration with Allie Felton, textile artist),” 2020, neon, plastic flowers, bees, recycled materials, dimensions variable (panel: 12 ft.). Photo courtesy of the artist.
“When I First Met You, I Thought You Were Intimidating,” 2019, neon, silvered glass, foam, powder-coated C-clamp, test clips, transformer, 20 x 24 x 12 in. Photo courtesy of the artist.
“Neon Templates of the Left Half of My Pregnant Body Taken at Ten Inch Intervals (after Bruce Nauman),” 2023, soft cobalt glass, helium, transformer. 5 x 6 x 18 ft. Photo courtesy of the artist.
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