Cameron Harvey: Gathering

Over the last five years, Los Angeles-based artist Cameron Harvey has been developing a uniquely embodied abstract language. Placing unstretched canvas on the floor, she moves fluid paint with her entire body, working pigment into the fabric so that the color becomes an inherent part of the work, rather than solely on its surface. Her practice is inspired by close looking at nature, explorations of energetic pathways, and philosophical concepts of becoming and immanence. These ideas are embodied in her paintings’ structural similarities to a Möbius strip, where front and back are imagined as a continuous surface that is always folding and unfolding in our perception.

Official Welcome is pleased to announce Harvey’s third Los Angeles solo exhibition, Gathering, opening on September 13, 2025. Harvey’s newest paintings were made with a few simple rules in mind: Her palette focused on shades of red and green, her inspiration was collected while walking in Los Angeles, and the shapes of the works have ornamental edges like the scalloped ceiling beams in the gallery. 

Grounded in the ritual habits of everyday life, Harvey’s process based painting practice begins with daily walks. Walking is where and when Harvey gathers her thoughts and inspiration. Plant matter collected while perambulating is the starting point for color and shape in Harvey’s compositions. Her large paintings resemble soft sculptures and are made of two pieces of canvas separated by a central midline from which they extend in bilateral, and sometimes imperfect symmetry. The consistent use of this formal strategy reveals both the diversity and variability that exists within repetition, exploring the idea of a midline as a unifying element. 

Color is as color does. Harvey is a colorist and her work is full. Harvey’s artworks offer a space to contemplate: looking closely, ideas about what is “enough”, the magic in the everyday, and the endless possibilities that exist within sameness. The artist thinks of her paintings as Beings. To her they are protective entities holding space for viewers to consider transformation, impermanence and acceptance. At Official Welcome they gather in a seance of sorts, surrounding the viewer as we find our place in the family of things. 

Alongside her new paintings, Harvey is sharing an ongoing series of black walnut and toyon ink drawings. These small works on paper have been made over the last five years with inks the artist makes with local plant materials she gathers. Like all of Harvey’s recent work, there is a responsiveness to site and interest in time - The hue of the ink shifts with the seasons in which the plant material is collected and the postcard-size drawings allow the artist to quickly explore transformations of shape in iterative compositions. A selection of these works are available in our online shop and all are available to view in person at the gallery.

Cameron Harvey (b. So. Pomfret, VT ) received an MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA (2021) and Post-Baccalaureate degree in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2007). Recent solo exhibitions include The Shape of Being, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA; Undoing is Becoming/Becoming is Undoing, Not There, Los Angeles, CA; and See Without Seeing, Know Without Knowing, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Wonzimer, Los Angeles, CA; Secrist|Beach, Chicago, IL; Library Street Collective, Detroit, MI; and many other venues. Alongside her artistic practice, Harvey has a deep engagement with yoga and meditation and has volunteered with Prison Yoga + Meditation in Los Angeles.