Liam Everett

Liam Everett was born in Rochester, New York, in 1973.^[1] His father was a theater producer, and his interest in the arts began as a child when he was cast in a production of Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot.^[2][3] He began painting a few years later, and has said that many aspects of his current practice are rooted in the methods he learned from working in the theater.^[4] He studied cultural anthropology and philosophy as an undergraduate student at S.U.N.Y. Empire State College in New York^[5] before earning a Master's of Fine Arts in painting from the California College of the Arts in 2012.^[6]

Everett creates paintings and sculptures in an abstract style. His first solo exhibition at Altman Siegel Gallery in 2012 featured small oil paintings on masonite board and free-standing and leaning wooden and steel frames draped with painted silk.^[7]

Beginning in 2013, Everett began creating paintings on linen.^[8] The process for these works involves working on the un-stretched fabric, building up many layers of oil paint and ink, and then eroding those layers through a variety of materials and methods including alcohol, salt, steel wool, and a power sander.^[9]

Everett's style has been described as theatrical and performative,^[10] and involves placing objects from the studio, which the artist has called "obstructions" and "props," onto the surface of the canvas before making a mark.^[11][12] These objects serve as obstacles that force the artist to work around and through them, dictating his movements and marks.^[13]

In 2013, Everett was awarded the Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship from the San Francisco Art Institute, and subsequently taught two courses and gave several lectures at the college.^[14]

Everett has exhibited internationally in group shows including A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2016), the Biennale of Painting at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium (2016) and Color Shift at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2014).^[15] He has had solo exhibitions at venues including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017); Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco (2012, 2016, 2018); galerie kamel mennour, Paris and London (2017, 2018, 2019); Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens (2015, 2017); Office Baroque, Brussels (2015); and White Columns, New York (2009); among others.^[16] In 2017, he was awarded the SECA Art Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and featured in a related exhibition at the museum.^[16]

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco^[17]
• Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley^[18]
• Fondation Carmignac, Paris, France^[19]