Liv Rainey-Smith is an artist specializing in hand-pulled xylographic prints. Her imagery draws primarily upon historic styles, folklore, dreams, and esoteric traditions. Rainey-Smith’s woodcut process incorporates a mixture of traditional and modern tools as well as a blend of European and Japanese printmaking technique. She pulls her own fine art prints in small editions on both paper and animal parchment.
Rainey-Smith completed her BFA at the Oregon College of Art of Craft in 2008. Two woodcut prints from her thesis, The Four Portlanders of the Apocalypse, may be glimpsed in Season 2, Episode 7 of Portlandia. Since graduation, she has worked full time as a woodcut printmaker in Portland, Oregon. In 2013 she took the business name Xylographilia (“Love of Woodcut”) to reflect her love of the art form. She was accepted as a professional member of Print Arts Northwest in 2010.
Her work has gained a substantial audience within the esoteric art world both locally and abroad. In addition to her self-directed work, she has also collaborated with Three Hands Press on a number of titles including Michael Howard’s Children of Cain, A Rose Veiled in Black, and most notably Robert Fitzgerald’s Arcanum Bestiarum for which she created over fifty original woodcuts.
In addition to being an affiliate of Three Hands Press, Rainey-Smith has contributed art to titles from Rubedo Press, PS Publishing, and other publications. She has served as the artist liaison of the annual Esoteric Book Conference in Seattle, Washington since 2011. She is also a regular guest and contributor to the annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival & CthulhuCon, where she has competed in the Pickman’s Apprentice Live Drawing Competition. In lieu of drawing, she races to complete an original woodcut print based on an audience prompt within a ninety-minute deadline.
Statement
As an artist working in a medium which demands patience and foresight, I enjoy the challenge of tempering impulse with process. My approach to woodcut printmaking is an ever developing system of technical control and precision with space left for chance and chaos. This ever changing form of balance is portrayed most acutely in my Iunges series, depictions of shifting forms suggested by the patterns in the wood they are carved from. These reduction prints, carved with minimal preparatory sketching, are moments of communication and revelation, to be grouped and paired as representations of harmonious discord.
Exhibitions
2016 | Solo show, Backstory Books, Portland, OR |
2016 | Solo show, Wells & Verne, Portland, OR |
2016 | Honey & Venom, The Hive Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
2016 | Love & Monsters, Lovecraft Arts & Sciences, Providence, RI |
2015 | Figurative Art Exhibition, Multnomah Arts Center, Portland, OR |
2015 | Visionary Art by Print Arts Northwest, 510 Museum & ARTspace, Lake Oswego, OR |
2015 | Prints from Bite Studio, Chehalem Cultural Center, Newberg, OR |
2014 | Bite Studio Holiday Print Show, Bite Studio, Portland, OR |
2014 | Beasts of Lore: The Woodcut Art of Liv Rainey-Smith, Rogue Gallery & Art Center, Medford, OR |
2014 | Solo show, Redux, Portland, OR |
2014 | Esoteric Book Conference, Seattle, WA |
2014 | Solo show, Gargoyles Statuary, Seattle, WA |
2014 | Supernatural, Splendorporium, Portland, OR |
2014 | World Horror Convention, Portland, OR |
2014 | The Artists of Bite Studio group show, Bite Studio, Portland, OR |
2014 | H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Portland, OR |
2014 | First Friday Reception, Wells & Verne, Portland, OR |
2014 | Dark Love: Sweet & Sanguine, Gargoyles Statuary, Seattle, WA |
2014 | Love in Print, Bite Studio, Portland, OR |
2014 | Curious Gallery, Portland, OR |
2013 | Ars Necronomica, Providence Art Club, Providence, RI |
2013 | Xylographic Menagerie, Woodcut Prints by Liv Rainey-Smith, Gargoyles, Seattle, WA |
2013 | From the Shadows of the Trees, I-G Creative, Philadelphia, PA |
2013 | Printmaking and Photography, Splendorporium, Portland, OR |
2013 | Myths, Marvels, & Magic, Splendorporium, Portland, OR |
2012 | Printmaker’s Hand II, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA |
2012 | MiniPrint Annual 2012, Lessedra Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria |
2012 | Print Arts Northwest,Lessedra Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria |
2012 | Sacrilege, The Congregation Gallery, Hollywood, CA |
2011 | Necropolis, The Congregation Gallery, Hollywood, CA |
2011 | If We Shadows, Gallery 114, Portland OR |
2011 | The Hunt, Hoffman Gallery, Portland OR |
2011 | Buckman Show & Sell, Portland OR |
2011 | Art as Healing, 100th Monkey Gallery, Portland OR |
2011 | Portland Love Show, Gallery Homeland, Portland OR |
2011 | Love in Print, Bite Studio, Portland, OR |
2011 | PAN members traveling show, various locations, OR |
2011 | Printmaking Show, Splendorporium, Portland, OR |
2010 | Tarot Show, Splendorporium, Portland, OR |
2010 | Liminal: the works of Chris Haberman & Liv Rainey-Smith, Pearl Gallery, Portland, OR |
2010 | Print Arts Northwest New Member Show, Portland, Oregon |
2010 | Black & White Group Show, North Bank Artists Gallery, Vancouver, WA |
2010 | Menagerie Show, Errata Gallery, Portland, OR |
2010 | Portland City Art’s Rainy Day Wildfire Show, Olympic Mills Center, Portland, OR |
2010 | 20th Annual Buckman Art Show & Sell, Portland, OR |
2010 | Launch Pad Gallery’s Fifth Annual Portland Love Show, Olympic Mills Center, Portland, OR |
2009-2010 | 20cmMax, OT Gallery, 150 E. Main, Tustin, CA |
2009 | The Printmakers Hand, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA |
2009 | Esoteric Book Conference, Seattle, WA |
2008 | Esozone, Watershed, Portland, OR |
2008 | Tribute, 100th Monkey Studio, Portland, OR |
2008 | Object Show, Hoffman Gallery, Portland, OR |
Professional Associations
Since 2010 | Print Arts Northwest |
Publications
2016 | Clavis: Journal of the Art Magical, Vol. 4 |
2016 | A Rose Veiled in Black, Three Hands Press, Robert Fitzgerald & Daniel A. Schulke editors |
2015 | She Walks in Shadows, Innsmouth Free Press, Silvia Moreno-Garcia & Paula Stiles editors |
2015 | Verdant Gnosis, Rubedo Press, Catamara Rosarium & Jenn Zahrt editors |
2015 | Dreams in the Witch House, Arkham Bazaar |
2014 | The Starry Wisdom Library, PS Publishing, Nate Pedersen editor |
2013 | Arcanum Bestiarum, Three Hands Press, Robert Fitzgerald author |
2011 | Children of Cain, Three Hands Press, Michael Howard author |
2010 | SilKMilK Issue #4 |
Education
2008 | BFA, Oregon College of Art and Craft |