EXHIBIT

Vivian Liddell: Game Day

November 1 – December 25, 2024

Thursday, November 7, 6:00-8:00: Reception

Vivian Liddell. Game Day (2nd Natty's Celebration).
Oil on canvas, diptych. 84 x 144 in. 2024

ATHICA@Ciné Gallery presents an exhibition featuring an immersive diptych painting by Vivian Liddell, which depicts an infamous celebration in downtown Athens, taking on its own epic mythologizing through Liddell’s unique vision.  Humorous, colorful, and intense, these large panels and related studies reflect upon our community’s dominant preoccupation. You may never see game days the same way again.

This large-scale diptych is an abstracted Athens, Georgia landscape dotted with naked revelers that loosely depicts the 2022 victory celebration for the University of Georgia’s 2nd consecutive national championship in college football. Many parts of the painting show items that will be recognizable by folks familiar with Athens, including City Hall, the chapel bell tower on the UGA campus (which anyone can ring to mark a celebratory occasion), and a statue from the Founder’s Garden. There are also some easter eggs for art history fans as well, including a figure based on a tree climber in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Beekeepers and a man relieving himself in the lower corner based on a Roman statue of Drunken Hercules from Herculaneum. Large, patterned columns reference fiber sculptures in my animations; I see them as self-portraits as they watch over the celebration and add a feminine flair to the festivities.

— Vivian Liddell

This is Liddell’s first solo exhibition for ATHICA. She was selected by the ATHICA Exhibitions Committee to be featured in the Solo Duo Trio series, which provides opportunities for individual artists to exhibit their work at ATHICA and its partner location, ATHICA@Ciné.

About the Artist

Vivian Liddell is an interdisciplinary artist based in Athens, Georgia who works with painting, fiber and craft techniques, sculpture, printmaking, photography, animation, and sound. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she received her B.F.A. in Photographic Design from the University of Georgia and her M.F.A. in Painting from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. Liddell hosted Peachy Keen podcast as an extension of her art practice, talking with other women about art and the Southeastern US and runs Arts + Athletics, an alternative gallery space focusing on local and regional artists. She is an Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of North Georgia, specializing in painting, drawing and gender studies.

Website: www.vivianliddell.com

Instagram: @vivianliddell

Title List: Inventory Report for Game Day