Location: Sebastopol, CA
Medium: Painting
Liam Everett was born in 1973 in Rochester, New York, where his father worked as a theater producer. His early exposure to the theater — he was cast in a production of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot as a child — shaped a sensibility that continues to inform his painting practice. He studied cultural anthropology and philosophy at SUNY Empire State College before earning an MFA in painting from the California College of the Arts in 2012. He lives and works in Sebastopol, in Sonoma County. He received the Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2013 and the SECA Art Award from SFMOMA in 2017.
Everett makes abstract paintings through an intensive process of building up and destroying. Working on unstretched linen, he layers paint, ink, oil, and sand, then erodes those layers using caustic everyday materials — salt, lemon juice, alcohol, steel wool, and a power sander — leaving visible traces of previous states. He has described his studio as a site of “rehearsal,” and has collaborated with choreographers and dancers during exhibitions to activate the performative dimension of the work. The influence of dance, theater, and Northern California’s natural environment are central to his practice.
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