PERPETUATING FAMILY SYSTEMS | Olivia Kincaid

WHITE GALLERY

PERPETUATING FAMILY SYSTEMS
Olivia Kincaid

OCTOBER 7 – 25, 2019
OPENING RECEPTION: OCTOBER 10, 6 – 8 PM

White Gallery is proud to present, Perpetuating Family Systems, an exhibition by local Portland artist and Portland State Graduate, Oliva Kincaid. Perpetuating Family Systems explores contemporary portraiture as a means to research visual distortion and how it juxtaposes authenticity, memory, and identity relating to family system. Curated by Safiyah Maurice.

Artist Biography:

Olivia Kincaid received her BFA in Art Practices from Portland State University in June of 2018, specializing in both Painting and Arts Integration. Her art work has been shown in multiple exhibitions including Super Salon (Gallery 101, Portland, Oregon) and currently works with KSMOCA, a non-profit art program for children, in Portland. Kincaid’s work engages self- reflective questions around her research in how visual distortion alters and affects authenticity, memory, and identity. She currently lives in downtown Portland and is attending Portland State University in pursuit of her graduate degree.

Artwork Statement:

“As an artist I am interested in process, portraiture, and abstraction. I use contemporary portraiture as a means to research visual distortion and see how it juxtaposes authenticity, memory, and identity. The layers in these pieces exemplify the layers I see not only in the family systems around me but my family and myself. Society has a way of wanting to box families into various identifiers; nuclear, single, childless, adopted and foster. Families all come with their set of societal bias.

I was adopted at 2 months old. I always knew that something was different about my family but as a child I couldn’t place it and honestly, I didn't care. I always felt loved and safe and that’s all that mattered. I grew up in a “different” family dynamic. My family had to learn how to love each other for other reasons, not because we were the same blood. We have always been different, gone against the stereotype, but that’s what makes us unique.

There has always been something intriguing to me about the idea and perception of family. As I have grown older I have found that my definition of family and my relationship with them has changed; this has caused the definition of myself to transform. As someone of Hispanic heritage I found tension in identifying as a person of color because I felt I was lying to myself and being inauthentic; as if being hispanic and being raised by a white family couldn’t coincide. Life isn’t that simple and neither is family, or myself for that matter.

I want this work to inspire people to question their perception of their own family system and how they view other people’s families, both in society and on a personal level.”

~ Olivia Kincaid, 2019

Artist (right) and sister (left) at reception

Littman WhiteOctober 28, 2019