NAVA Contemporary is pleased to present a selection of artwork by Ty Nathan Clark, Liv Dockerty, Kim Keever, Vanessa Kocking and Patrick Sansone, five artists with roots in the American South. Defined more by shared culture and history than strict geography, Southern Art is rich in explorations of cultural identity, the natural environment and a history of self-taught artists.

NAVA Contemporary is pleased to present a selection of artwork by Ty Nathan Clark, Liv Dockerty, Kim Keever, Vanessa Kocking and Patrick Sansone, five artists with roots in the American South. Defined more by shared culture and history than strict geography, Southern Art is rich in explorations of cultural identity, the natural environment and a history of self-taught artists. Ty Clark is a visual artist, film maker, sculptor and writer based in Waco, Texas. His work evokes a lifetime of art-making, cultural exploration, literature, and deep inquiry into the human consciousness through his frenzied, gestural technique. Clark applies layers of text and paint, charcoal and oil in a dizzying assembly, ultimately resulting in a fresh, contemporary, graphic style. Native to Miami, Florida, Liv Dockerty uses her abstract realist approach to explore the ethereal and ever-changing nature of clouds, capturing the essence of Miami's sky in her distinctive and captivating style. Her paintings’ associative titles often reference song lyrics, evoking narratives and emotions, while her bold palette invites the viewer to indulge in the sensual pleasure of colors artfully combined. Kim Keever is an internationally acclaimed photographer working in Miami, Florida. Trained as a thermal engineer, Keever constructs colorful large-scale abstractions by pouring paint into a 200 gallon tank of water in his studio. The resulting clouds of color are captured by a large-format digital camera as they swirl into different forms and diffuse themselves through the water. Based in Florida, Vanessa Kocking’s paintings bring to life an alternate reality, one that exists on the palpable brink of imagination and materiality. The essence of the artist’s work is borne of her memories and seeks to translate the emotional consciousness of her experiences. In her own words, the paintings are, “a place I can build silent cities, landscapes and characters, emerging from nostalgia, experience, fantasy and an eternal existential pursuit.” Born and raised in Meridian, Mississippi, the self-taught artist Patrick Sansone creates striking Polaroid photographs that reference observations of stillness, lure, and intermission. His work embodies a Southern aesthetic, not unlike Eggleston and Christenberry. Enlarged into C-prints, the images offer a record of a time and place that is thrillingly intimate but forever just out of reach.