Bailey Ferguson is a visual artist exploring above and below the sea surface.
Bailey Ferguson's gestural paintings are defined by bright color palettes and layered paint applications evoking the ethereal qualities of water. Her abstracted style emerged as a symbolic way to communicate feelings of connection, impermanence, and healing while displaced in 2018 during the Kīlauea volcanic eruption. Since then, Ferguson has explored water as a metaphor for the human condition. Ferguson is inspired by ocean environments, such as point breaks, coral reefs, and geological features. She was an Artist-At-Sea resident sailing from Honolulu to Fiji aboard a Research Vessel, she volunteered with a coral research lab in Kona and is an avid surfer and diver. These ocean experiences inform her art practice.
Ferguson's work has been featured at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster CA, the Hawaii Museum of Contemporary Art, and in publications, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. She had two recent solo exhibitions including BLUE MIND (2022) at Kahilu Theatre in Waimea, Hawai’i; and Under the Liquid Veil (2020) at the Wailoa Art and Cultural Center in Hilo, Hawai’i. Her work is held in private collections internationally.
Bailey received her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Denver, a BFA in Communication Design from the Metropolitan State University of Denver, and she studied in Florence, Italy. Outside her studio practice, Ferguson works as a freelance designer and teaches place-based art education at the Donkey Mill Art Center in Holualoa. Ferguson lives and works in Kailua-Kona, Hawai'i, and exhibits regularly.
“I paint from a place of remembrance – moments of calm and chaos – when immersed in water. Simultaneously peaceful and chaotic, isolating and connecting, colossal and imperceptible, water embodies the complexities of the human experience."