Lily Voorhees
CONTORTION, 2025 - 2026
In this series, I employ high-contrast imagery to investigate the connection between human nature and the natural world. By juxtaposing surreal concepts with realistic figures, I create a visual language that reflects my perception of modern society. The figures I paint are always interacting with the environment around them, whether it is one of human creation or not.
Although I don’t view my work as sculptural in nature, nothing I create is ever fully 2D as I find one plane insufficient for the depth of these subjects. Instead, I integrate 3D elements and layered materials to pull the viewer into the physical space of the work. The use of loose watercolor pigments and chalk pastels allows a fluidity to the piece that other materials can’t provide. Because the human condition is never truly stagnant, my figures are always captured mid-motion, performing within their environments as if the world itself were a stage.
As the series has evolved, my focus has shifted from the strict replication of the human form toward a more gestural, emotive application of a medium. This departure from realism allows me to imbue each scene with a heightened sense of movement and dreamlike state. By breaking the figure down into expressive brushstrokes and textures, I am able to explore life as an active performance.
Lily Voorhees
GROWTH AND DECAY, 2024 - 2025
In this series, I explore a "visual voice" that communicates through rhythm, repetition, and randomness rather than sound or syntax. By leaning into the organic looseness of my forms, I aim to challenge rigid definitions of perfection and embrace the inherent unpredictability of the natural world.
My process is dictated by materials that are malleable and responsive to their environment. I select elements like fabric and string specifically because they are submissive to gravity in ways that rigid materials, such as wood, are not. I do not impose a strict vision upon the materials. If a string refuses to bend or a fabric falls in an unexpected way, I pivot to follow the material’s natural inclination. In this practice, the form shapes the piece, and the meaning is discovered in response to that physical evolution.
While my work is deeply informed by nature, it is also architecturally inspired. I view these structures as miniatures of much larger concepts—abstract ideas or physical scales captured in a singular form. This direction grew from my work with tree branches, where the organic geometry of the wood could only be altered to a certain degree. Rather than forcing change, I learned to build around and with the existing life of the object. Ultimately, these works serve as structures that celebrate life outside the restrictive lens of perfection.