Installation view of “Red Rum Punch”
In Rachel Livedalen’s Red Rum Punch, densely packed, candy-bright montages blur and intermingle, gradually revealing complex undercurrents. At a consistent 20 x 16 inches, these works are built using a hybrid print-painting process, where a seemingly cheery lexicon of recurring imagery is layered, compressed, and deliberately obscured. This body of work reflects Livedalen’s interest in weaving historical and personal iconography — Greek imagery, makeup palettes, and Lisa Frank aesthetics — sparking a dialogue with classic depictions of femininity.
The print-based canvases create a dissonance between clarity and concealment. Overlapping print techniques produce painterly surfaces that defy direct representation. Livedalen’s imagery — a decade of recurring symbols — functions like a personal archive, with fragments unearthed and reassembled into layered, suggestive compositions. Amphoras, coloring book outlines, and hidden messages — initially rendered in stark detail — dissolve beneath veiled layers.
Rachel Livedalen, “Two Vessels Passing In The Night,” 2024, acrylic on linen, 20 x 16 inches
Working on clear-primed linen, Livedalen builds tension through strata. In the sublayer, faint shapes and overlapping fields of airbrushed stencils fan out across the canvas, creating a fractured ground for subsequent planes. In Two Vessels Passing in the Night, wash-like fields are cut with clean silhouettes of playful daisy drawings. The mid layer is screen-printed next, a flush, opaque dark grey assemblage. It contains a photoshopped composite of images: outlines of Greek amphoras, a daisy sticker sheet with stickers removed, and a partially shrouded text — Lady and the Tramp? — that are condensed into a single layer. Here, extensive redactions heighten awareness of the artist’s decisions to reveal and hide. These markers feel personal and coded — a breadcrumb trail that invites the viewer into a game of concealment and discovery, hinting at a deeper narrative.
Applied using vinyl stencils that create a slight relief, the surface introduces additional contours of amphora, interwoven with aqua blue and soft lime lines. Lines coil and reverberate as vases appear in shifting, overlapping perspectives. In the top layer, print methods yield to hand-painted elements, introducing a tactile dimension — a final, authoritative gesture.
Rachel Livedalen, “Watermelon Sugar High,” 2025, acrylic and yarn on linen, 20 x 16 inches
Livedalen extends this approach in Watermelon Sugar High, where two crocheted, watermelon-shaped potholders are mounted directly onto the surface of a juicy-red arrangement of fruit. In a selection of canvases, she affixes objects such as strung beads resembling body parts and strawberry-like felt forms — their awkward placement introduces a sense of deliberate, material bluntness. These elements resonate with artists like Kathleen Ryan and Robin Francis Williams, who entwine craft-adjacent practices with ethereal fabrication techniques. Yet, where Ryan and Williams captivate the viewer through the seamless interplay of these methods, Livedalen’s direct, almost abrupt use of objects breaks the illusion. Their presence feels intuitive, yet their significance remains elusive, offering no clear explanation for their inclusion.
Rachel Livedalen, “All Of The Above,” 2025, acrylic on linen, 20 x 16 inches
These compact works are loaded with cryptic details, balancing opaque and transparent fields. Logical, process-driven steps dissolve into hidden imagery, compelling the viewer to continually probe for meaning. This is not about decoding a fixed message; it is about navigating an autobiographical language that has evolved over time. Livedalen’s work does not prioritize individual symbols; rather, their accumulation over years of practice has grown into a unique lexicon. Her compositions suggest self-portraits or coded documents — truths that resurface only to be buried again.
Rachel Livedalen: Red Rum Punch is on view through March 21st at Erin Cluley Gallery.
