Audia Dixon

Audia Yvonne Dixon (b. 1992, Fresno CA) comes from a family of artists and matriarchs who continue to influence her work. Dixon holds a BA in Art from CSU-Fresno (2016) and is recently earned an MA in Studio Art, also at CSU-Fresno (2021) where she was awarded  both the Graduate Deans and Presidents Medal in 2022 for her academic and community contributions in art . She has participated in numerous exhibitions and public art projects, including at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport (Dec 2021); the graduate thesis exhibition at the Phebe Conley Gallery at CSU Fresno (November 2021); collaborative murals Know your Soil, Grow in Earth & Rest and Rising Together, both part of Dulce Upfront’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing” mural tour (2020); and a solo exhibition at 1418 Fulton in Downtown Fresno.  She is currently an Art Instructor at Clovis Community College. 

Nostalgic experiences has a way of extending itself to reshape our personal fantasies and dreams. It can infiltrate our memories to make them a little more exaggerated and not merely as authentic. And yet , it is still a mysterious and well embraced phenomenon that nostalgia allows us to have the  perfect homecoming , to return to a place and time where we long to relive. We reminisce on whatever brings us joy, what has been expressed as the ,” the happy times”, that trigger euphoric sensations brought by bliss, comfort and warmth.  And in even  our times of loneliness, or when we catch ourselves in a repetitive motion in our daily lives, those foggy or muddled  memories resurface to  become more vivid , brighter and colorful. 
Nostalgia and Black identity are the conceptual foundations of my work,  because the understanding of our past from the early stages of our youth become  pivotal links that shapes us  into who we are - from our interests, dreams , uncertainties , and our fears. It  amazes me is how the intertwining of nostalgia, growth, and identity can  become the perfect alchemy of creating colorful atmospheric worlds ,  immersed with wonder and danger the  explores the metaphorical narrative of life - from a Black perspective. With my body of work, my large paintings try to capture surreal depictions of  Black childhood nostalgia channeled through personal memories and feelings about racial awareness. I attempt to capture young Black female figures glowing in a fantastical world, an imperfect Edenic playground, where the present and past dwell on the same plane. Inspired by the history of Dutch Renaissance pastoral painting from lush green pastures,  to quiet chilling tundras, classical portraiture, I create atmospheric landscapes that symbolize a gateway to an ideal and dream-like world where Black innocence and nostalgia can coexist.