Katy Mixon’s paintings are inquiries into the surface of things, namely color and texture, for their power to emote and conceal. Her studio process involves adding numerous layers of oil paint to panels, then carving back into the paint to reveal built-up surface complexity. The harvested chips of paint are used to start new works, seeds to germinate new paintings. Leftover supports become raw material for new constructions, and used hand rags are embroidered into patterns modeled after scrap fabric quilting. As the graft from one painting morphs into the next, her studio is a body in the act of becoming, both decaying and procreating. Like a process of tillage, Mixon's paintings grow to reveal crops of color, pattern, and form.
Public Studio Hours: Week of March 28 - April 3, 2022
Monday 12 - 2 pm
Thursday 12 - 4 pm
Friday 10 am - 2 pm
Artist Biography
Katy Mixon, born in Orangeburg, is a visual artist working in painting, sculpture, quilting and photography. She earned an MFA from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a B.A. from Davidson College. She is an alumna of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Mixon is a recipient of a Working Artist Grant and a Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation Award. She was a finalist for a William and Dorothy Yeck Young Painters Award and a VCUarts Fountainhead Fellowship. Mixon was invited as an artist-in-residence to VCCA, VA; Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Neb.; The Hambidge Center, Ga.; AICAD Studio Practice Residency, N.Y.; and Byrdcliffe Art Colony, N.Y. Select exhibition venues include the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; GreenHill Gallery, N.C.; the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, NC; Ackland Art Museum, N.C.; Spartanburg Art Museum, S.C.; Coker University, S.C.; A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, N.Y.; The Painting Center, New York; Target Gallery, Va.; Rubber Stamp Projects, Fla.; Allcott Gallery, N.C.; 701 Center for Contemporary Art, S.C.; among others.