Halloran specifically used cyanotype as a foundation for the works, invented by astronomer Sir John Herschel, in a nod to the early study of the heavens and transition from drawing to photography. The very practice of cyanotypes, produced through exposure to the sun, is a testament to the impressiveness of the sun’s sheer power. Each cyanotype panel was printed independently by placing a painting done on a translucent piece of paper and acting as a negative under the natural rays of the sun in order to obtain its cyanotype positive. Halloran then accentuated the imprinted image with rich colors that sweep across the paper, channeling the dynamism of its subject. Immense in size and saturated with blues, blacks, and pops of color, the resulting paintings evoke the overwhelming grandeur and luminosity of the sun. 

Lia Halloran (b. 1977, Chicago, IL) received a BFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1999 and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 2001. Halloran’s work is included in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Escalette Permanent Collection of Art, Chapman University, Orange, CA; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX; Speyer Family Collection, New York, NY; Progressive Art Collection, Cleveland, OH; Microsoft Art Collection, San Francisco, CA; Simons Foundation, New York, NY: and Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection, Boston, MA, among others. Her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, ArtNews, Artillery, and New York Magazine. Over the past decade she and Nobel Laurate Kip Thorne have been collaborating on a book of paintings and poetry, The Warped Side of Our Universe, which will be released by W.W. Norton/Liveright in 2022.

She is the recipient of numerous awards including a 2021 City of Los Angeles (COLA) Visual Artist Fellowship; 2022 Artist Residency at the California Institute of Technology and the Huntington Research Center, 2021/22 Art Exhibition Program with the LA Department of Cultural Affairs, 2018 LUX Art Institute Artist Residency and exhibition, Encinitas, CA; 2018 Artist Residency at the American Natural History Museum Astrophysics Department, New York, NY; 2018 Pioneer Works Artist in Residency, Brooklyn, NY; and a 2016 Art Works Grant from the National Endowment of the Arts for the project Your Body is a Space that Sees. Lia Halloran lives and works in Los Angeles and is an Associate Professor of Art at Chapman University in Orange, CA where she teaches painting and courses that explore the intersection of art and science. 

For further information, including images and previews, please call 213-395-0762, or email: gallery@luisdejesus.com.