Vincent Wrenn

Vincent Wrenn was born in Memphis in 1954 where he grew up seeing Elvis in the front yard at Graceland from the gas station across the street where his parents fueled the family car. He began his fine art studies in oil painting at the age of 13 under the guidance of a local painter named Jewel Armstrong. In 1969 he heard Jimi Hendrix and the Experience in concert and said that his use of feedback profoundly influenced him. After the performance he met Hendrix at the Sheraton Motor Inn where he signed a portrait that Vincent had done of him. Another major early influence for Vincent was “the sound of the monolith” in 1968 by Gyorgy Ligeti in the Stanley Kubrick movie 2001 a Space Odyssey.

From 1972-78 he majored in fine art with the abstract painter and long term friend and mentor Dick Knowles at the University of Memphis. While there he began doing both minimalist painting and minimalist drone music with a Korg MS10, manipulated tape, circuit bending and found sounds. He also worked with fellow Memphian artists Lynn Book, Rick Ivey and Eric Hill doing performance art which included video, installation art and sound work.

In the late seventies Vincent attended one of Buckminster Fullers day long lectures at the University of Memphis and was able to converse with him over lunch about the state of the world and the “obsolescence educational system” which later influenced his decision to withdraw from the University structure.