Stan State university Art Gallery is thrilled to present exhibition Poetic Cartography by Audrey Tulimiero from February 4 - March 13, 2026. An opening reception will take place Thursday, February 12, at 6:00p.m.
Audrey Tulimiero Welch is a California-based artist whose abstract, layered paintings reflect the personal impact—the grief and transformation—of the invisible forces of migration and ancestry. Drawing upon her Sicilian heritage and years spent living abroad, she uses mapping to explore interconnection, transformation, and the layers we carry. Welch has exhibited at galleries and museums internationally, including the Bade Museum, Berkeley; Coos Bay Art Museum, Oregon; Frauen Museum, Bonn, Germany; Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco; Tacoma Art Museum, Washington; Torrance Art Museum, California; and the Whatcom Museum, Bellingham. Her work can be found in the collections of GOOGLE, San Francisco; Ronald McDonald House, Perth, Western Australia; and Saks Fifth Avenue, New York. She was nominated for a Dedalus Fine Art Fellowship in Painting and received a Merit Award from the 69th Annual Crocker-Kingsley at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento.
Originally from Livingston, New Jersey, Welch holds a BFA from the University of Delaware and an MFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. She has had residencies at Guildford Grammar School, Western Australia, and at the Pouch Cove Foundation, Newfoundland. Her work has been published in Architectural Digest, Fine Art Magazine, New American Paintings, San Francisco Chronicle, Fremantle Gazette, SFMOMA Art News, and Square Cylinder. She has upcoming solo exhibitions at M Stark Gallery, Half Moon Bay, California, and the University Art Gallery, California State University Stanislaus, Turlock, both in 2026. She is represented by Robischon Gallery, Denver; Judith Rinehart Gallery, Seattle, and Ellio Fine Art, Houston.
Artist Statement / Poetic Cartography
As an abstract painter, I map the emotional weather of inner and outer worlds. Inspired by Poetic Cartography, I create intuitive maps that chart consciousness and connection, reflecting the rhythms of poetry. For me, the possibility that maps call forth is not a literal reference to place but a poetic space of possibility. Mapping is my language to locate myself in relation to time, place, and people, addressing our need to belong. It makes sense of both the visible world and the internal realms of spirit and memory. My layered paintings explore how matter and essence situate within our bodies and influence daily life.
Rooted in my Sicilian immigrant culture and impacted by living fifteen years in a range of countries and cultures across the Pacific Rim, my paintings trace the migration and the movement of people. Color, gesture, and line create topographies that lead the viewer to explore interconnection, transformation, and the layers we carry.
Working within a set of radical layering strategies, my process favors improvisation, chance, and intuitive risk-taking. Using physical maps of the places I have lived, acrylic, plaster, photographic fragments, and masking fluid, I embrace improvisation, chance, and risk-taking, building and excavating layers of color and line until turbulence meets stillness.