Rory Linn is a New Orleans-based artist whose abstract carved paintings explore boundaries of paint and sculpture, building and carving through multiple layers of paint to create textural surfaces that become vessels for light and shadow.
Rory Linn is a New Orleans-based artist known for her distinctive layered paint carvings, a technique that draws on her formal printmaking training at Portland State University, where she earned a B.S. in Printmaking. Working from her home studio, she applies the precision and layered thinking of relief processes to paint, building up multiple layers of paint over several weeks, then carves into them to create textural surfaces that capture the interplay between light and shadow.
Her current work explores themes of grief, vulnerability, resilience, and relationship dynamics, with pieces often beginning from emotionally resonant titles that guide the layering and carving process. Through this evolution, her years of technical carving foundation now enable authentic emotional expression through textural surfaces that invite both contemplation and personal reflection.
BIO
EXHIBITIONS
2025
The Degas House Art Festival, Degas House, New Orleans, LA
How You Doin’ New Orleans, Arts New Orleans x Merchant House, New Orleans, LA
Layers, Alpharetta Arts Center, Alpharetta, GA
2024
On Neutral Ground, Vestige Gallery, Pittsburg, PA
Untitled Group Show, Old Road, New Orleans, LA
2022
Fishbowl, Blackfish Gallery, Portland, OR
2009
There is a weight that lives in the spaces between what we show the world and what we carry inside. My carved paintings exist in those hidden places, exploring the tension between revelation and concealment through the physical act of building and excavation.
Each piece begins with the accumulation of multiple layers of paint, applied over weeks. The carving process is both rhythmic and meditative, an dance with the material that goes deeper than technique alone could reach.
Recently, my work has become increasingly self-reflecting, beginning with the title, an emotional territory that needs exploring. I layer paint with this title in mind, then carve, trusting my hand to guide me to carved surfaces that become vessels for light and shadow, a space where healing could happen if you carve deep enough to find it, where viewers might discover their own crevasse to leave something behind.
My work invites viewers into slowed, mindful observation. As light changes throughout the day, new details emerge and recede, creating an ongoing relationship that encourages return for deeper meaning. These pieces ask us to pause in a world that demands constant motion, and find meaning in simply paying attention.
ARTIST STATEMENT
COLLECTIONS
Carrolton Courthouse, New Orleans, LA
