New Lydia Gravis exhibit makes its mark at the NAU Art Museum

A new art exhibit at the Northern Arizona University Art Museum responds to life’s challenges with large, fluid-like graphite and water media works.

Artist Lydia Gravis uses a repetitive mark-making technique in abstract drawings to visually communicate. “Lydia Gravis: Mark-making in Liminal Spaces” is on display through Nov. 16. An artist presentation will be at 4 p.m. Nov. 16.

Gravis lives and works in Ogden, Utah. She is the gallery director of the Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery within the Department of Visual Art and Design at Weber State University.

art work by Lydia Gravis
“Metastasis” by Lydia Gravis

“Instead of taking something specific and abstracting its essence, my work attempts to take something abstract, like the idea of liminal psychological space, and suggest its specificity through visual language,” Gravis said.

Her current works use personal experiences as source material for a new direction. Using numerous shades of blacks, browns and blues with graphite, her pieces have a flow-like quality. Creating these works helped Gravis navigate a friend’s terminal cancer with the power of being able to communicate with art.

The NAU Art Museum is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at 620 S. Knoles Drive on NAU’s Flagstaff campus. Entrance to the museum is free, although a $2 donation is suggested.

Tallie Valverde