Meili Corbin was born in Austin, Texas, and has lived in various places in the US as well as overseas in Germany, France, Austria and Italy. Her exposure to art began at a very young age and Meili has always been intrigued by how the standards of beauty were redefined in each culture she encountered.
Corbin graduated magna cum laude from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas with a BA in Studio Art and minors in French and Art History. She earned her MFA in Painting in Corciano, Italy and Rome, Italy through American University’s (Washington, DC) Art in Italy Program. For the past two decades, Corbin’s work has revolved around her research in the contemporary sublime and the beautiful.
Recently, her work focuses on the transience of beauty in the physical world which stands in strong contrast to the idea of beauty which remains eternal. Rather than embracing pluralism and relativism, notions so common in today’s world, Corbin’s work seeks to find truths that are steadfast and eternal, moments that are captured on the picture plane forever, entrapped in memory which endures; and hints at a nostalgia as those transient moments have come and gone in time, but remain preserved on the canvas or paper. Her drawings seek to preserve generations past, and turn people today towards building a legacy that is catalogued in carefully rendered portraits or places once visited.
Corbin’s work has been exhibited in the USA and Europe, landed in private collections and included in various publications including Studio Visit Magazine. Meili currently works out of her studio in the Texas Hill Country where she lives with her husband and three children.