The MFA Fine Arts program at Otis College of Art and Design welcomes artist Laurie Nye to its Visiting Artist Lecture Series.
About Laurie Nye
In Laurie Nye's work, painting is itself a motif, one that offers utopia, expression, and freedom, particularly when depicting nature. Nye's paintings of trees and gardens, rivers and birds have parallels in the work of American Pictorialist photographers like Anne Brigman, an artist who believed in using her medium to "create" images rather than simply record them. At the same time, in Nye's work there is a conversation with American modernism, especially as it appears in the South, and in the work of artists such as Beauford Delaney, who like Nye, is from Tennessee. In Nye's work, nature is a place of self-discovery, connection, and celebration. Nye's vivid brushwork, succinct color, and sophisticated use of line breaks up the picture plane, emphasizing its materiality, flatness, and the construction of painterly space. Her paintings suggest possibility in our relationship with nature, highlighting and strengthening that fundamental bond.
Laurie Nye (b. 1972, Memphis, TN) received her BFA from the Memphis College of Art (Memphis, TN), and her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, CA). Nye will be featured in the current exhibition, Pocket Universe (Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA). Nye will have a solo exhibition at the gallery in Spring 2023. Her recent solo exhibition, It Wasn’t A Dream It Was A Flood, at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) was an Artforum Best of Year 2021 feature. Nye’s group shows include, The Moth & The Thunderclap, Modern Art (London, UK, 2023); Encounter, Rachel Uffner (New York, NY, 2022); BodyLand, Galerie Max Hetzler (Berlin, Germany, 2022); and Unnatural Nature: Post-Pop Landscapes, Acquavella (New York, NY, 2022). Nye’s artist project, Chickasaw Moon, at Odd Ark (Los Angeles, CA) was an Artforum Critic’s Pick. Nye’s work has recently been the subject of solo and group exhibitions at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); Van Doren Waxter (New York, NY); Bark Berlin Gallery (Berlin, Germany); The Pit (Glendale, CA), Odd Ark (Los Angeles, CA); Big Pictures LA (Los Angeles); Blake and Vargas (Berlin, Germany); The Dot Project, (London, UK); Day and Night Gallery (Atlanta, GA); La Loma Projects (Pasadena, CA); and Unpaved Gallery (Yucca Valley, CA). Her work has been reviewed in such publications as Artillery, Los Angeles Times, Artforum, FAD Magazine, and LA Weekly. Nye lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
