A CONVERSATION ON ENERGETICS
VITA (Vita C. Rice, b. 1995) is a Utah-based artist creating paintings which employ a fusion of intricate brushwork, nuanced colorways, and subtle symbolism - all woven together with a meticulous dedication to fine detail. Through her work, she initiates a conversation about the visual linguistics of waveform and natural rhythms, exploring how these elements manifest at micro and macro scales. Nodding toward familiar forms yet embracing the fantastical, her compositions center around the shape of dreamlike landscapes, blending organic structures with hyper-definition and impressionistic abstraction. Deeply inspired by the desert and the science of geomorphology, her art contemplates the duality of eternality and ephemerality - reflecting on the ways in which material transforms over the vast expanse of space and time.
Working primarily in acrylics and latex, Vita values their stability and versatility, which allow her to layer pigments with intentional precision. She has coined the term “brushstroke progression” to describe her unique approach to building her fluid, evolving textures that mirror the undulating patterns found in nature. Her artistic practice is rooted in a fascination with the physical principles of matter and energy, as well as philosophical positions on metaphysics and the ethereal.
Using her paintings as a vehicle, Vita seeks to amplify a remembrance: that all things, from the smallest particle to the grandest celestial body, from you to your neighbor to the ground we stand on, are composed of the same timeless essence as everything else.
Film by Isue Shin | May 2025 | Cruise Control Contemporary | Cambria, CA
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
At the heart of my practice is the idea that everything is connected. Every atomic particle, every alive and breathing being, every ecosystem,
every commercial good, every piece of nourishment, etc., is made of the same ancient material as everything else, endlessly rearranged over time.
My work explores the language of movement, and philosophies around the recycling of energy — my paintings are my interpretations of the way in which natural rhythms unfold across different scales, from the microscopic to the Brobdingnagian.* Inspired by both the visible and the unseen, I create dreamscapes and color-fields that feel at once familiar and otherworldly in the hopes that the viewer/collector can find a sense of comfort, excitement, and belonging within the broad and ever-morphing fabric of reality.
I spend an immense amount of time in the western deserts, taking notes and investigating the intricacy of the visual dialects at play. The expansiveness of these landscapes continuously ground me in the tension between permanence and impermanence, creation and erosion, the eternal and the fleeting. These patterns reflect the kinship between our human bodies and the land - the way we shed, adapt, shift, and swell.
Over time, I’ve developed a specific set of techniques which allow each mark to evolve like a ripple — echoing natural patterns found in wind-sculpted cliff-faces, meandering waterways, cracked earth, our own skin and veins, and the branches of our lungs. My process is guided by the foundational premises that human beings can only perceive .0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning that the processing abilities of our bodies aren't picking up on almost 100% of the “stuff” around us at any given time. The grand mystery and unseen forces which govern existence are a primary driver in the symbolism I choose to include within my compositions.
It is my hope that my art can evoke a sense of curiosity and reverence within its viewership, an invigorated contemplation. I truly believe that the more we can find ourselves in intimate relationship with the Earth, the more we are able to rectify the separation between humans and the natural world.
I hope that my work feels like a calm, refreshing pool to bathe in.
*A fictional land in Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, which is inhabited by giants; used to describe anything absurdly large in size.