About BARE Walls

Discovery

Artist: Erin Gray

Erin Gray is an abstract painter based in Lafayette, La. Her work has been showcased with ARCHIVES Exhibitions, at Basin Arts, both in their gallery space and their Bare Walls program, and as the featured artist for Downtown Rising in 2025 and 2023 (collaboratively). Gray’s work is guided by the bold influences of artists like Cy Twombly, Willem de Kooning, Claude Monet, and J.M.W Turner. With a focus on capturing the raw energy of the natural world, she draws inspiration from its fluidity and transformative qualities, embodying the ever-changing rhythms while inviting the viewer into a space of introspection. Gray received her BFA from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2016. She currently works at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, helping to supply arts experiences to students in the public school system.

Artist Statement: I am a Lafayette based abstract painter. My work encompasses my admiration and curiosity for nature that result in large scale and small, intimate paintings. I am intrigued by the tension of opposing forces, qualities that mirror internal, emotional landscapes. Using a variety of mediums like spray paint, acrylic, charcoal, pastel and organic forms, I attempt to evoke moments that feel both fleeting and eternal. By working in layered processes, I create a “forever existence” that emphasizes the rejuvenation that nature has to offer, inviting the viewer to linger and take notice of the little moments. These pieces become suspended fragments of time, leaving traces of nature’s vitality - whispered acts of witnessing what cannot be held.