A R T I S T B I O
Victoria Nixon Bailess is a visual artist and educator based in central North Carolina. She resides in her hometown of High Point with her husband, her three children, and her black lab, MoMA. She has instructed middle and upper school students in visual arts at Westchester Country Day School since 2012. Over the years, Victoria’s studio practice has evolved from providing her with an escape from the everyday demands of motherhood into a creative process that allows her to connect with her Greek heritage.
Victoria’s work has been exhibited in multiple group shows throughout central North Carolina at the The Art Gallery (formerly Theatre Art Galleries), the Gatewood Studio Art Center Gallery, and the Electric Moustache Gallery. She recently curated a body of work that was installed as a permanent collection in the Wilson Student Center on the campus of Westchester Country Day School. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she earned her BFA in Art Education with a studio concentration in Design in 2012.
A R T I S T S T A T E M E N T
I am a granddaughter of immigrants. The compositions I create serve as an outward expression of my Hellenic origins. Natural and architectural features of distinctive Grecian landscapes provide focal points within abstracted scenes of dreamy Cycladic islands, the rocky outcrop of the Acropolis, and lush rolling mountainous regions of the mainland. Fluid watercolors, inks, and watery acrylics are applied to cotton papers to create transparency and overlap— a metaphor for my intersecting identities as a second-generation Greek-American. Color-blocked shapes and negative spaces that breathe provide a subtle emphasis to characteristic cultural symbols such as the evil eye and classical columns. Intentional bohemian color choices create an air of nostalgia that echoes that of vintage travel posters. My artistic investigations not only nurture my connection to the Greek diaspora, they celebrate it.