CHELSEA BIHLMEYER

SEPTEMBER 1-29, 2023
Main Gallery

Untitled II

Untitled II is a series of colorful abstract, acrylic paintings on unstretched cotton canvas. Bihlmeyer makes this series in tension with her primary identity as an arts-based researcher. Suffering from burnout throughout a master’s program and a Fulbright grant appointment, this series of non-representational paintings is a constant thread which helps her cope with burnout from a highly theoretical, language-based practice.

“So much of my work has, in some ways, had to commodify my trauma or perform a specific identity – to receive grant funding, for example. And yes, that kind of work is important. But in this series, for me, for now, I am telling myself that I don’t always have to be “good.” Especially as a woman. Growing up, our survival depends on being a ‘good girl.’ So even just being neutral is a deeply resistive and restorative thing.” – Chelsea Bihlmeyer

Facing acute global and personal battles with burnout, Untitled II is a process-based practice which embraces being-in-body. The work reclaims the right to disconnect from cognition and reconnect with embodied intuition – to reject intellectual authority, if only for a moment. Bihlmeyer approaches canvas without a plan and embraces colors and compositions which she finds personally appealing. She uses color and shape to take up space on canvas, and she uses large, unstretched canvas to take up space in the gallery.

Bihlmeyer is inspired by contemporary female abstract artists like Lee Krassner, Joan Mitchell, Grace Hartigen, and Helen Frankenthaler. She follows a tradition of women artists who use abstraction as a way of expressing themselves in a language outside of the dominate and accepted culture.

Untitled II is Bihlmeyer’s commitment to burnout. She prefers to absolve herself from the emotional and intellectual labor of translating between visual language to spoken or written language; rather she lets this current series speak for itself.

About the Artist

Chelsea Bihlmeyer is an arts-based communications scholar. She is a Fulbright Alumni and a PhD student at West Virginia University. Bihlmeyer pursues what she considers a Sisyphean struggle to understand and be understood in the world. Her current work is in acrylic, abstract painting on unstretched canvas. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies at University of Missouri – Kansas City and her Master of Arts in Communication Studies at Purdue University Fort Wayne. Her work fluctuates between art and scholarship and has been shown in Kansas City, Dublin, Bloomington, Fort Lauderdale, Helsinki, and other cities nationally and internationally.