Half Moon Bay-based artist, Audrey Tulimiero Welch, will present her abstract layered paintings in a survey exhibition at Stanislaus State University Art Gallery now through March 13. There will be a reception at 6 p.m. Friday, followed by an artist talk at 6:30 in the gallery. The event is free and open to the public, and wheelchair accessible.
The Gallery is located at One University Circle, Turlock, on campus in the Theatre Building. There is free parking in Lot 2 for the reception only.
Welch’s abstract, layered paintings reflect the personal impact—the grief and transformation—of the invisible forces of migration and ancestry. Drawing upon her Sicilian heritage and years spent living abroad, she uses mapping to explore interconnection, transformation, and the layers we carry. Her exhibition, “Poetic Cartography,” at the Stanislaus University Art Gallery features over 20 large, layered paintings that span a 10-year period. As an abstract painter, Welch maps the emotional weather of inner and outer worlds. Inspired by the artistic concept of poetic cartographies, she creates intuitive maps that chart consciousness and connection, reflecting the rhythms of poetry. Mapping is the artist’s language to locate herself in relation to time, place, and people, addressing our need to belong. Her abstract paintings respond to both the visible world and the internal realms of spirit and memory. Using physical maps, acrylic, plaster, photographic fragments, and masking fluid, her process embraces improvisation, chance, and risk-taking, building and excavating layers of color and line until turbulence meets stillness.
“Audrey Tulimiero Welch’s abstract …multi-layered, almost map-like work leaves the viewer looking for meanings. By constantly allowing the viewer to shift through ever interesting and dense layers, helps to create the interconnections to one’s own history. In her works, we also see and feel the years of the artist living abroad and the reflections of those distant lands in the creation of these poetic cartographies. We are very fortunate to have this exhibition in our gallery,“ said Gallery Director Dean De Cocker.
Welch has exhibited at galleries and museums internationally, including the Bade Museum, Berkeley; Coos Bay Art Museum, Oregon; Frauen Museum, Bonn, Germany; Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco; Tacoma Art Museum, Washington; Torrance Art Museum, California; and the Whatcom Museum, Bellingham. Her work can be found in the collections of GOOGLE, San Francisco; Ronald McDonald House, Perth, Western Australia; and Saks Fifth Avenue, New York. She was nominated for a Dedalus Fine Art Fellowship in Painting and received a Merit Award from the 69th Annual Crocker-Kingsley at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento. Originally from Livingston, New Jersey, Welch holds a BFA from the University of Delaware and an MFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. She has had residencies at Guildford Grammar School, Western Australia, and at the Pouch Cove Foundation, Newfoundland. Her work has been published in Architectural Digest, Fine Art Magazine, New American Paintings, San Francisco Chronicle, Fremantle Gazette, SFMOMA Art News, and Square Cylinder. Living abroad in Indonesia, Thailand, and Australia from 2002-2016 played an important role in her stylistic development. She is represented by Robischon Gallery, Denver; Judith Rinehart Gallery, Seattle, and Ellio Fine Art, Houston.
