Somatic Memory (2025) is an exhibition of mixed-media paintings exploring bodily memory through abstracted self-portraits of the female figure.
Bio:
Grace Hoag is an artist from Colorado. She earned her BA in painting from the University of Northern Colorado, with additional studies in business administration and arts entrepreneurship. Grace was selected for Art Gym Denver’s Create Award Residency, which culminated in the resident artist exhibition, In Absentia (2021). Her work was exhibited in Boulder at the Dairy Arts Center for Prismatic (2023), and in Denver at Friend-of-a-Friend gallery for BACK2SCHOOL (2022). Her paintings are featured in the documentary Anxious Nation (2022) directed by Laura Morton and Vanessa Roth. In 2025, Grace curated an exhibition, Embodied, at the Museum of Art Fort Collins (2025), and was selected for Wolverine Farm Publick House’s maker-in-residence program for the July-September season. This is Grace’s first solo exhibition.
Artist statement:
Grace Hoag, digital photograph, Tristan Mark, 2019
I make mixed media paintings that explore bodily memory through abstracted self-portraits of the female figure. Self-portraiture gives me complete access to the body I’m representing and allows me agency over how my body is presented. To start my paintings, I reference photographs I take of myself. I paint directly on canvas over multiple sessions and build layers of color and texture to create unexpected conversations between paint and remembered sensations of physical touch- expressing through painting what it feels like to exist in my body. I use a brush to draw the figure, and once I’m satisfied with the structure of the body, I begin to paint freely all-over the canvas. My experience of creating abstract paintings combined with the practice of drawing models from life gives me the foundation to build, and then abstract, a figure with confidence. Thin paint allowed to drip invites the material to disrupt and transfigure my mark-making, bridging the space between figure and the canvas’s ground. Smoothly blended oil paint depicts the soft form of my female body, while abruptly drawn marks made with an oil stick depict muscular tension and energy around the figure. Pure colors next to neutralized mixes develop moods. For example, gradations of cool blue invoke the feeling of calm introspection, while bold red oranges next to deep black pigment can create feelings of anxiety. Previous paint layers impact the final surface, and later coats are washed away to reveal earlier marks. By creating situations where I can allow spontaneity in the painting process, I become a collaborator with my materials to build the artwork. I am a conduit to make paintings that want to be made. I use this process to build self-knowledge by being present with my body in a way that has not felt safe before.
This series of work reconnects me with my body, which I have felt disconnected from due to traumatic experiences. Memories can be stored in the body and reignited in visceral ways that are separate from memories kept in the brain. The dichotomy of traumatic memory is that memories can appear both as an image of a single moment frozen in time, and as moments superimposed and disintegrated: unable to be placed within linear time or rational experience. My paintings of layered bodies and colors seek to reconcile memories from my mind and body simultaneously with the present moment, promoting the phenomenon of post-traumatic growth. The result is a painting that explores my somatic experiences through expressions recorded in paint.