Artist statement
My surreal figurative oil paintings are vessels for the visions I channel through psychic intuition, plant medicines ceremonies, dream work, and repressed memories. Inspired by the DIY culture of Black Mountain College, I mix fashion design, painting, and performance, while employing symbology from tarot cards, religious iconography, queer culture, and domestic space. In my most recent paintings, I am exploring religion, disability, and processing the destruction from Hurricane Helene's flooding. I distort perspectives and figures in my paintings to reference how traumatic stress causes the brain to collage fragments of memory. In these collages of paint, I rewrite my experiences in a whimsical world.
Artist Bio
Sky Dai is a disabled, queer, emerging artist living in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Their figurative oil paintings explore imagery from memories, relationships, medicine ceremonies, and the astral realm. Most recently, Sky Dai received a grant to be an artist in residence at Vermont Studio Center in 2024. They received a BFA in fine arts and creative writing at Columbus College of Art and Design and attended and taught School of the Alternative at Black Mountain College. Sky Dai received the Emerging Young Artists Award of Excellence from The Kennedy Center, and they were flown out to Washington D.C. to attend receptions on Capital Hill. Sky Dai also makes hand-painted clothing and one-of-a-kind tarot decks and sells them at a boutique in West Asheville. When they’re not making art, they’re probably reading tarot cards under the moon, searching for a swimming hole, or doing improvisational dance.
