{"id":48525,"date":"2019-12-05T11:43:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T17:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=48525"},"modified":"2020-01-06T09:46:36","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T15:46:36","slug":"lydia-gravis-embraces-the-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/lydia-gravis-embraces-the-chaos\/","title":{"rendered":"Lydia Gravis Embraces the Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lydia Gravis, photo by Aman Gada<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s a situation that will ring true for many of the artists who make their living as arts professionals: \u201cI spend a lot of time helping other artists show their work and have opportunities, and I love my job,\u201d says Lydia Gravis<\/a>, director of Weber State University\u2019s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery. \u201cBut sometimes people forget, and I forget: I\u2019m an artist.\u201d With the help of Kelly Carper, in Ogden, and John Sproul, in Salt Lake City, Gravis is reminding us, and herself, of that fact with two exhibitions opening December 6.<\/h4>\n

\u201cLydia’s work feels like pure abstraction to me, in that it\u2019s abstract form inspired by abstract thought,\u201d says Carper, who curates pop-up exhibits in the Ogden area, including a regular series of shows at The Argo House. \u201cRather than deconstruct a familiar image or particular idea like many abstract painters do, she’s creating a visual reference for intangible feelings and felt experience. In this way, her work can be more challenging for the viewer to dissect, which I think makes it more intriguing and exciting.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Sproul, who runs Nox Contemporary in Salt Lake City, first saw one of Gravis\u2019 drawings at the Utah Museum of Art\u2019s yearly benefit auction this summer. \u201cI was drawn to it by instinct and by the strength of the work,\u201d he says, adding that, contrary to his normal practice, he even traveled to Ogden to see more of the work. \u201cI find her work to be profound, and it moves me in a primal way with an archetypal resonance that I long to see and need to see in the art being made now, but that is often lacking. The work reflects a courage to open up and put herself in the work and from that willingness comes deep beauty and an otherness of being that I am looking for in the artists I wish to exhibit at Nox.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Gravis\u2019 work was included in Artists of Utah\u2019s last 35×35<\/em> exhibition in 2016, was part of a four-person show at the Alice in 2014 and has appeared in a few juried and group shows in Utah over the past decade; but Touching the Void<\/em>, at Argo House, and Tracing the Untraceable<\/em>, at Nox, will be the first opportunity for most in Utah\u2019s art community to look at the depth and breadth of her work. Though she has lived and worked in Utah since 2004, her work remains relatively unknown here: her responsibilities at the Shaw Gallery have certainly kept her busy; so have her two children, ages 3 and 5.<\/h4>\n
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“Complexities,” 38″ x 50″ 2013<\/p><\/div>\n

Born and raised in Spokane, Washington, Gravis was a competitive athlete in high school \u2014 basketball, volleyball, shot put \u2014 before the constant wear and tear on her body cut her athletic future short. \u201dI\u2019ve needed a knee replacement since age 19,\u201d she says. \u201cTo be young but to have a physical condition more relatable to a 75-year old was kind of an isolating experience.\u201d<\/h4>\n

She moved to Alaska when she was 18, working summers in a fishing lodge. \u201cI fell in love with the place \u2014 the vastness of it,\u201d she says. She attended a small liberal arts college, where she met her husband, before transferring to Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. \u201cI didn\u2019t take art seriously until athletics went away,\u201d she says of discovering the joy of painting halfway through college. She graduated with a B.A. in Painting and a B.A. in Human Studies \u2014 \u201ca combination of psychology and sociology \u2014 basically a social work degree.\u201d<\/h4>\n

After graduation, Gravis and her husband came to Utah for a summer. \u201cWe were broke. Directionless. Trying to get back West.\u201d She found a job working with kids in the juvenile offender system. That lasted three years before the strain became too much: \u201cIt was sucking so much of my creative energy, I didn\u2019t have anything left for art.\u201d As many young artists do, she patched together a living \u2014 with standard jobs, like waiting tables, as well as the less standard: \u201cHave you ever tried to take pictures of 500 kindergartners in an hour and a half?\u201d she asks with a wry smile.<\/h4>\n

Within a year, she was saved by a job at Weber State\u2019s outreach program. She took advantage of the stability that position brought to enroll in a low-residency MFA at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. \u201cThat was life changing. I don\u2019t think my work would be what it is if I hadn\u2019t been pushed to investigate it the way I was.\u201d It was during this time she discovered her medium. Her previous work had been in oils \u2014 abstract pieces that explored the energy of a place \u2014 but skin problems forced her to drop the medium; and acrylics wouldn\u2019t do what she wanted. She had avoided graphite, associating it with representational work, but with the encouragement of a professor, she discovered its capacity for layering and creating a sense of mystery.<\/h4>\n
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“Circles of Chaos, Rows of Resilience,” graphite, acrylic, charcoal on paper. 30″ x 37,” 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

With soft washes and hard lines, she creates an atmosphere of receding space, mostly in shades of gray, milky clouds alternating with cellular structures and tangled lines. There is something both macro and micro about her work, suggesting the vast expanses of the universe as well as the world seen under a microscope. But the world Gravis is exploring is emotional rather than physical.<\/h4>\n

\u201cI think a drawing of the world doesn\u2019t have to look like the world,\u201d she says of her approach. \u201cIt\u2019s my desire to respond to the complexities of the world that can oftentimes be profoundly \u2026 sad, emotional … things like grief and loss … How do you watch your friend\u2019s child die? Making work is an act of empathy, but also an act of sanity. It\u2019s about making sense of it all but really my inability to make sense of any of it. It\u2019s a way to feel empowered when you have no power over the things you\u2019re watching.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Specific events may inspire her explorations on paper. She cites the October, 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas as an example. \u201cWhat do you do with that?\u201d she asks rhetorically. \u201cHow do you hold that without going crazy?\u201d In response, she started a drawing thinking she was going to make 58 marks to memorialize each person that was murdered at the concert. \u201cBut that was too formulaic, so I let that idea sit in my head and just started drawing. The wonder of making took over the wonder of how to comprehend the insanity of the event and then the drawing took on a life of its own.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Wonder is a word that comes up often when she discusses her work. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s the wonder of how someone feels in a tragic event, the not knowing, that psychological liminal space \u2014 not understanding but feeling; sub-comprehension; the inability to grasp. But it can also be the wonder at the complexities of life and the world, about the awe-inspiring experience of existing in the world … And sometimes it\u2019s just the wonder about the navigation of my daily life.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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“Touching the Void, Naming the Unnamed 2,” India ink and graphite powder on paper, 38″ x 50,” 2018<\/p><\/div>\n

That navigation includes the full-time job at the Shaw Gallery, which she began after finishing her M.F.A. \u201cI\u2019m not an art historian. I didn\u2019t go to school for curatorial studies. I\u2019m very much a maker. At first I was very self conscious that that would be seen as a liability, but I\u2019ve really come to believe it\u2019s an asset.\u201d She\u2019s learned to identify her own unique skill set, to embrace it, and to find others to fill in the gaps. \u201cIt\u2019s very much a project management position,\u201d she says. \u201cPatching walls, writing grant applications, helping a student with a video setup: I\u2019m preparator, curator, director, janitor.\u201d<\/h4>\n

The gallery stages four to five exhibitions a year. Most come from within the university \u2014 faculty shows, BFA exhibitions, juried student work \u2014 but at least one a year is a curated group or solo show. \u201cThe best part of my job is working with artists from all over the world,\u201d she says. Those have included Japanese artist Yasuaki Onishi, British-Spanish artist Isabel Rocamora and Lydia Okumura, from Brazil.<\/h4>\n

She\u2019s gratified to see the response these shows elicit, good or bad. One of the most memorable exhibits was Elizabeth Higgins O\u2019Connor\u2019s absurd animal figures made from discarded materials. \u201cIt was a pretty crazy show. Not everyone got it or appreciated it, but everyone is still talking about it,\u201d she says. She was gratified when during the run of Fahamu Pecou\u2019s exhibit, a patron came in to personally thank her for highlighting the work of an African American artist. She\u2019s also learned to take the negative responses in stride (especially the anonymous ones left in the gallery guest book). \u201c[WSU art professor] Matthew Choberka and I curated a show about painting, and someone wrote in the guest book, \u201cHow many curators does it take to put together another bad painting show?\u2019\u201d She recounts the anecdote with a healthy laugh. She seems open, embracing, not easily offended or deterred.<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe job of an academic gallery is always this teetering between accessibility and discomfort,\u201d she says of the Shaw\u2019s role. \u201cYou need to remain accessible, but you need to address contemporary issues that may be uncomfortable.\u201d She\u2019s proud of the work they\u2019ve done. \u201cI feel like the shows we\u2019re doing could take place in any large metropolitan area. We\u2019re holding our own.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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“Renew 1,” graphite on claybord, 30″ x 36,” 2018.<\/p><\/div>\n

She thinks her work as a curator and gallery director has \u2014 for the most part \u2014 made her easier to work with as an artist. Knowing what it\u2019s like to be on the receiving end, she is more professional and conscientious about how she prepares her work, the materials she provides to a venue. At the same time, she can sometimes forget herself, trying to do the curator\u2019s job for them, and confesses to having to write a letter of apology once for overstepping her bounds.<\/h4>\n

Her more than five-year stint at the Shaw Gallery has coincided with the decision to begin her family, a stage she entered with a sense of trepidation. \u201cI remember this intense fear as a female artist about to have a child,\u201d she says. \u201cYou get pissed off at feminism, you get pissed off at Title IX \u2014 like you\u2019ve been fed this line that you can do it all and do it all perfectly \u2014 and then it falls apart.\u201d It has been difficult, but she\u2019s learning to grapple with the time demands of infants, and toddlers who want to collaborate on her pieces. \u201cSometimes you\u2019re so self-absorbed as an artist in the studio, making work \u2026 it\u2019s almost refreshing to get outside yourself and do the parent thing for a while.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Last year, she embraced her return to an active career as an artist with an exhibition at Northern Arizona State University that featured 60 pieces. \u201cIt kind of almost killed me,\u201d she says of making new work and preparing old work for the show. Getting back into the studio (or in Gravis\u2019 case, the dining room table, late at night when the children are asleep) is not always easy. But she\u2019s been intrigued by the results. \u201cWhen I began making this new work I discovered it was very much different from the last time I had really made work.\u201d<\/h4>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s almost a sense of urgency when making the work now,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t have the luxury of time I had before, in long stretches in the studio. The process is different and my vocabulary is different. It\u2019s evolved. … I remember the first time I made a drawing after my return. It was a drawing I had started before I had my kids. The bottom layer was more meditative, the new one more chaotic, more urgent. When the drawing was finished, I felt it was successful, but I really had to work harder to earn it, be more intentional with the way I work.\u201d<\/h4>\n

The exhibition at Nox Contemporary offers an opportunity to see the evolution of her vocabulary, with work created over a seven-year span. The Argo House exhibit will focus on new work, revealing an expansion of her media, including India ink, oil pastel and paper collage.<\/h4>\n

The recent past has also seen Gravis\u2019 return to sports. After eight knee surgeries, she started mountain biking in 2015. She has relished the opportunity to get a high-intensity cardio workout; but the sport is also risky and she admits to falling more than once. \u201cYou get better about trusting yourself, and taking risks,\u201d she says about the sport she\u2019s eager to share with her children. \u201cAnd it definitely helped my confidence in general.\u201d<\/h4>\n

It’s a confidence that has allowed her to stage two simultaneous exhibitions of intensely emotional work \u2014 \u201cI think showing work is a vulnerable act in and of itself,” she remarks \u2014 and to embrace her role as an artist. \u201cIt easy when you\u2019re an arts professional to forget. You have to remind yourself: \u2018Before I was a curator, before I was a mother, before I was a spouse, I was an artist.\u2019\u201c<\/h4>\n
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“Shrouded Clarity 2,” ink and acrylic paper collage, 10\u201dx10,\u201d 2019<\/p><\/div>\n

Lydia Gravis: Tracing the Untraceable<\/em>, Nox Contemporary<\/a>, Salt Lake City, Dec. 6, 2019 – Feb. 8, 2020.<\/p>\n

Lydia Gravis: Touching the Void<\/em>, presented by Carper Contemporary<\/a> at\u00a0The Argo House, Ogden, Dec. 6, 2019 – Feb. 29, 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a situation that will ring true for many of the artists who make their living as arts professionals: \u201cI spend a lot of time helping other artists show their work and have opportunities, and I love my job,\u201d says Lydia Gravis, director of Weber State University\u2019s Mary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,14],"tags":[3576,1437,3575,1890,100],"class_list":["post-48525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artist_profiles","category-visual_arts","tag-argo-house","tag-john-sproul","tag-kelly-carper","tag-lydia-gravis","tag-nox-contemporary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_5993.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-27 08:12:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48525"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48679,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48525\/revisions\/48679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}