Nilly Livesay:  Boundless

The Little Gallery

210 Kidder Hall, Oregon State University

May 5-June 13

Opening reception with the artist:  May 6, 3:30-5 p.m.

About Nilly Livesay

Since the artist’s youth, she has straddled the strange intersection between academia and rural reality, and has carried undying, often conflicting allegiances to both spheres of existence. Living in this space has made her keenly aware of cultural boundaries and points of trespass and has awakened the wonder of moments in which commonalities and fresh insights blossom across division.

This series of paintings is about the beauty of nuance of that intersectionality:  an exploration of borders and spaces alternately standing strong, blending, fraying or bleeding into oblivion. Inspired by the techniques of abstractionists Gorky, Krasner, and Frankenthaler, these paintings also play upon the concepts of authoritative control, release, and adaptation.

"I think about borderlands and identities often – as an Oregonian woman raised in the last vestiges of the 'western frontier,' and as an oddball artist and teacher who traverses rural and urban cultures, code-switching reflexively to fit everywhere (but also nowhere)." - Nilly Livesay