Laine Nixon
from the series Zuhanden
Artist Statement:
"I was born in 1970 in Norman, Oklahoma. Two main rituals carry over from my childhood into to my art making: i) finding refuge in the magnificent sunsets and storms of the Great Plains, and ii) questioning any and all statements of authority. Still a skeptic seeking refuge, I pursue my work through a studio practice, developing paintings that subtly embody the conflict between visual perception and the physical object – or between thought and thing.
The Zuhanden series is a series of 48”x 48” non-objective paintings where I embed thinned washes, pours, or otherwise watery paint within a heavy-bodied, textured acrylic gradient. Enjoying a slow progression from one painting to the next, I am driven by a formal challenge to see if I can reverse the typical salient and recessive properties of transparent and opaque marks in order to provoke a subtle sense of (perceptual) confusion; a confusion not laden with fear but rather a comfortable, even beautiful moment of uncertainty.
Why celebrate this moment? I tend to delight in an optimistic ambiguity about things, which in turn leads me to all kinds of other good things such as deeper understanding, alternative perspectives, a sense of mystery, or even peace and joy. These are the aspects I wish to share by sharing my work."
"I was born in 1970 in Norman, Oklahoma. Two main rituals carry over from my childhood into to my art making: i) finding refuge in the magnificent sunsets and storms of the Great Plains, and ii) questioning any and all statements of authority. Still a skeptic seeking refuge, I pursue my work through a studio practice, developing paintings that subtly embody the conflict between visual perception and the physical object – or between thought and thing.
The Zuhanden series is a series of 48”x 48” non-objective paintings where I embed thinned washes, pours, or otherwise watery paint within a heavy-bodied, textured acrylic gradient. Enjoying a slow progression from one painting to the next, I am driven by a formal challenge to see if I can reverse the typical salient and recessive properties of transparent and opaque marks in order to provoke a subtle sense of (perceptual) confusion; a confusion not laden with fear but rather a comfortable, even beautiful moment of uncertainty.
Why celebrate this moment? I tend to delight in an optimistic ambiguity about things, which in turn leads me to all kinds of other good things such as deeper understanding, alternative perspectives, a sense of mystery, or even peace and joy. These are the aspects I wish to share by sharing my work."
Laine Nixon is a painter based in Sarasota. In 2015, Nixon’s work was published in Studio Visit Magazine, and acquired by RBC Wealth Management. She won the 2016 John Ringling Towers Fund fellowship which includes a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat. She is working on an upcoming solo exhibition.
