William T. and Harriet Butterworth (Class of 1951) Miller Gallery and Thomas Sully Gallery

6 October 2026–30 June 2027
Celebratory reception: 20 November 2026, 5–8 p.m. 

Color-Aid ® is a group of paintings that explore Aimee Joyaux’s bursting sense of urgency, a frantic and anxious response to our new world order. Joyaux states:

I am a concerned observer of the global artistic and political scene. The shapes of our time are shifting as environmental transformation and fluid borders refuse any static definition. I don’t feel that we are in a free fall but very little that I read is reassuring. It’s hard to feel anything but grim. Our barbarity is haunting. And yet, art is a place for hope, an opportunity for honesty, an invitation to pay attention, to request reflection, perhaps to inspire conversation. So, I paint. I look backwards and I look forwards.

Plants become abstract forms to play with, stand-ins, excuses to engage with texture and color and act as references, symbols of life and death, our canaries in the coal mine. Color-Aid ® is also a consumer product. They make color swatches used by artists and designers both as indexes but also raw material. They are very fun to just look at. I love the idea of color as an aid. My use of bright color is in part an effort to give myself some energy, hope, and beauty.

Joyaux’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Taubman Museum (Roanoke, VA), National Women in the Arts Museum (Washington, DC), and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. She earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and BA from Southern Oregon State University.

Pictured: Aimee Joyaux, Snakes, 2023–2025. Shellac, acrylic, oil stick, oil pastel, pencil, charcoal, and gold leaf on canvas, 36 x36 inches. Photograph courtesy of the artist.