Bio

Erick Wolfmeyer is an Iowa City-based textile artist whose intricate, hand-constructed quilts explore the deep intersections of identity, narrative, and spiritual transformation.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, and twice relinquished in infancy, Wolfmeyer grew up under a fictive identity, legally and irrevocably separated from his family of origin. This early fragmentation instilled a lifelong, instinctive impulse to decode patterns and seek out the hidden structures that lie beneath the surface of what we see.

A young-adult reunion with his maternal family in 1989 was followed decades later by a 2016 DNA discovery revealing his true paternity: the late, prolific Texas singer-songwriter Jerry Lynn Williams. This profound revelation corrected twenty-seven years of misinformation and illuminated the roots of Wolfmeyer’s resolute creative passion.

Wolfmeyer earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Washington University in St. Louis in 1990, studying under Joe Deal, a foundational figure of the New Topographics movement.

Wolfmeyer created his first quilt as a gift while living in Yountville, California in 1998, finding a medium that perfectly mirrored his need to reconstruct meaning from disparate pieces. Inspired by a broad array of sources, his work celebrates and extends the possibilities of textile art while remaining strictly true to the geometry and construction techniques of traditional quiltmaking.

Today, Wolfmeyer maintains a dedicated studio practice alongside a full-time career. He machine-pieces his intricate designs with a simple straight stitch and finishes every piece with single-needle hand-quilting, crediting the generosity of fellow quilters for his sewing education. His work has been featured in numerous publications and exhibited across the United States, China (2012), and France (2018).