Greta Waller is driven by her passion for exploring and understanding the nature of light and color. Chasing the impossible, Waller employs her subject matter to serve as vehicles through which she studies light’s fleeting and variable properties.
A subject of primary and ongoing interest to Waller (for almost a decade) is ice. In her Ice Block Paintings, Waller places a block of ice on a plate, and then races to capture the light refracting within the melting block. Conceptually fascinating, this series engages the viewer by revealing a full spectrum of colors that move through the ice and its surfaces. Guided by her curiosity, Waller took a cruise to Antarctica where she found the play of light and color in ice’s first cousin, snow. Waller enjoys her complete freedom to paint the rainbows of color that refract through ice, snow, and sky, subject matter that challenges her to always see in new ways. In her most recent solo exhibition, American Dream/Sueño Americano, the Mexican desert proves fruitful ground. Waller tactfully explores the many different catalysts for light: expansive clouds, nopales cacti, clothes drying on the line, a simple residence lit as though from within—a lyrical narrative unfolds in oil paint.
Waller sees the world from a unique perspective and uses her artistic practice to come to terms with her distinctive reality. From her fascination with transformations of ice, to her experiments with the nature of light and color of vastly different environments, to her intimate still life paintings, each composition is arresting both visually and conceptually.
Born in 1983 in Indianapolis, IN, Waller earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cooper Union in 2006. She continued her studies at the University of Los Angeles, CA, and received her Master of Fine Arts in 2011. Waller has participated in several select summer and exchange programs, including the Chelsea College of Arts and Slade School of Fine Art in London, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and the New York Academy of Art in Manhattan. In 2017, Waller was invited to participate in the Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts at The American Academy of Arts and Letters, was chosen as an Art Award winner. Waller lives and works in Los Angeles.