About the artist:

Paula Overbay holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA and a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR.

Eight pieces of Paula’s were just purchased and installed at the new US Embassy in Casablanca, Morocco by Curator Hafiz Imtiaz of the US Department of State, WA DC. 

“CELLS” in various iterations have been installed in three galleries: “In the House of Sky” at Westbeth Gallery, New York, NY; “The Divine and Sublime” Victoria Hall Drawing Rooms, Jersey City NJ; and “CELLS” Nine Gallery, Portland OR in 2023. The maquette preparation was aided by a residency at the Constance Saltonstall Foundation in 2015. Overbay moved from Brooklyn to Portland in 2019.

Two large canvases “Swerve I and Swerve II were commissioned in 2021 by a WA DC private government building. This ushered in her interest in “The Swerve” by Stephen Greenblatt on The Nature of Things from Lucretius: Everything is made of invisible particles. They are in small things that cannot be divided. Everything is formed of these atoms and on dissolution, return to them in the end. Immutable, indivisible, invisible, and infinite in number, they are constantly in motion, clashing with one another, coming together to form new shapes, coming apart, recombining again, enduring.

The developing dot patterns dovetailed with many artists and curators for group exhibitions: “In the Elements”, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn NY; “Asterism”, Key Projects Art Space, Queens NY; “An Intricate Universe” Corner Gallery, Ithaca NY, “Indra’s Net”, Mueller Gallery, Caldwell College, NJ: “Indigo: the Seventh Color”, LABspace, Hillsdale NY; and “Cosmology”, Storefront Bushwick, Brooklyn NY.

Overbay has been awarded three residencies at the Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL; two residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH; One at Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee Belgium; and one from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation of the Arts, Ithaca, NY.