Liam Everett

Liam Everett’s abstract mixed-media painting and sculpture result from a process of steadfast and repetitious application and erasure, employing non-traditional methods to apply—and caustic substances to remove—painstakingly developed layers of paint and composition. Inspired by the dynamic alchemy of the natural environment in California, this method makes plain the interactive properties of the substances on the canvas—how they counteract, preserve, or react to one another. In this way, Everett’s investigative procedure, laser-focused on the subtle behavior of his materials, becomes akin to the scientific assaying of chemical and mineral substances in order to determine purity or the limits of stability. 

 

In the studio, the artist develops this process by imposing physical obstructions, demanding exaggerated levels of adaptation and effort that recall the straight-faced farce and gesturality of absurdist theatre. Everett brings the body into the problem-solving inherent in art-making, destabilizing and actualizing all at once. The studio space, then, is akin to a rehearsal space in which progression and perpetual motion never quite reach a reliable resolution. The toil of this circuitous working method is imbued in the work, revealing itself on the canvas as a complex material and metaphysical depth.