In Laurie Nye's work, painting is itself a motif, one that offers utopia, expression and freedom, particularly when depicting nature. For Nye, nature is a place of self-discovery, connection and celebration. Her vivid brushwork, succinct color, and sophisticated use of line breaks up the picture plane, emphasizing its materiality, flatness, and the construction of painterly space. Laurie Nye's paintings suggest possibility in our relationship with nature, highlighting and strengthening our fundamental bond with, not only our immediate surroundings, but also our world as a living gaia.
Laurie Nye's works consider a range of Visionary approaches, particularly those of the French 19th-century movement, Les Nabis. These artists' works open up a world to her, allowing for a conversation that emphasizes feeling and looking, sensing and responding, careful thought and committed engagement. Laurie Nye pulls both from memory and interpretations of specific locations, many of which she visits again and again, fascinated by the light filtering through the woods, the undulation of clouds, the leaves of a given tree, the patterns in a pond or a brook. In a chaotic world, contemplating nature is Nye’s escapist strategy.
Nye lives and works in both California and Tennessee, returning regularly to locations in Tennessee where she grew up - a pond built by her father, a river on which she fished as a child, the fountain in a park by her mother's house. She has also begun looking more deeply at her California surroundings, connecting to the land and visionary openness of Los Angeles, which has directly affected her palette and scale. In Nye’s work, these places - real, imagined, both - are figured through motifs, many of which are repeated and reworked, constantly thought through from one painting to the next. For instance, in the painting, “Fall at Echo Park Lake”, Nye explores recurring motifs of reflections and flowing fountains. There is a feeling of improvisational gesture that carries through the composition. Through a sensorial color palette and repeated patterns, she alludes to an existential experience of viewing nature.
Laurie Nye has a background in surface design and an ongoing love for textiles and fabrics. She often thinks about the Wiener Werkstatte (Vienna Workshop), an artistic collective that sought to explore the connection between painting and practices like surface design. In Nye's work, color, line and shape are deeply interconnected. They build a sense of "all-overness" that refers to both painting and textiles. Nye’s line pulls from the muscle memory of years of drawing. She maps out and explores motifs, with stacked banding of color and form to create an encompassing emotional experience.
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’s work was the subject of a recent solo exhibition “My River Runs to Thee,” at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). Her 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, “Pocket Universe,” Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); "A Particular Kind of Heaven," Parrasch Heijnen (Los Angeles, CA); "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). Laurie Nye’s artist project, “Chickasaw Moon,” at Odd Ark (Los Angeles, CA) was an Artforum Critic’s Pick. Laurie 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). Nye has work in the OZ Art Northwest Arkansas, (Bentonville, AR) collection. 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.