Santa Fe | Cara Tomlinson: SLIPSITES

(SANTA FE, NM) Nüart Gallery is pleased to present SLIPSITES, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Cara Tomlinson, on view from July 31 – August 22, 2026, with an opening reception on Friday, July 31, from 5:00–7:00 PM.

Cara Tomlinson: SLIPSITES
Nüart Gallery is pleased to present SLIPSITES, a solo exhibition featuring new paintings by Cara Tomlinson.

Cara Tomlinson constructs paintings through layered geometric structures, shifting spatial relationships, and a distinctive vocabulary of recurring forms that remain in a continual state of perceptual adjustment. Rather than depicting fixed subjects, her work establishes visual environments in which relationships emerge and reconfigure through the act of looking.

Tomlinson’s paintings occupy a distinctive position within contemporary abstraction. Her recurring arches, columns, bands, and geometric fragments never function as isolated formal devices. Instead, they acquire significance through their relationships with one another, creating compositions that suggest exchange, movement, and presence without resolving into recognizable imagery. The paintings remain resolutely abstract while possessing an unusual narrative coherence, allowing viewers to follow visual relationships rather than decipher symbolic meanings.

Built through successive layers of paint, revision, and subtle adjustment, each composition evolves through a careful process of accumulation. Transparent layers preserve traces of earlier decisions, while newly introduced shapes redirect the spatial logic of the painting. Through this continual process of construction and reconsideration, order and movement emerge without becoming fully fixed.

Throughout SLIPSITES, Tomlinson demonstrates how abstraction can generate meaning through relation rather than representation. Her paintings reveal compositions whose narrative emerges through the evolving relationships between forms. Rather than illustrating the world, they construct visual situations in which perception becomes active, allowing each encounter with the work to remain open and continually renewed.

Cara Tomlinson is an Oregon-based artist whose paintings, drawings, and sculptures have been exhibited nationally and internationally. She has received support through numerous grants and residencies, including the Oregon Arts Commission, the Ford Family Foundation, Monson Arts, the Ucross Foundation, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She is Associate Professor of Art and Head of Painting at Lewis & Clark College in Portland.