2.16.24

Shock Art

As an artist, Marlana Stoddard Hayes ’83 has always been drawn to the colors, textures and forms of nature. Her recently shown grouping of 15 individual paintings, collectively titled Alluvium, reflects that same fascination with the natural world.

“Alluvium comprises a wall of 15 squares that reference the universal patterns of life in our world,” she says. “I find there is so much infinite variety to always enchant us when we start looking closely at life.”

Born in Ottumwa, Iowa, she has studied, taught and painted in many far-flung places – western Kansas and the Provence region of France, to mention just two. A graduate of Colorado State (BFA) and Wichita State (MFA), she moved in 2000 to Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where she set up her studio practice in West Linn. She has exhibited in Europe, Africa and China, as well as across the United States.

A showing of her artwork is slated for June 28 through July 28, 2024 at NYC’s A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibition will be curated by Nicole Kaack.