January 29, 2026 - May 2, 2026
The Exhibit
In The Afterlife of Rivers and Fields, Ali Vaughan explores the poetic intersections of memory, landscape, and transformation. Rooted in her experience of California’s Central Valley, her work reflects on the ways land holds history—how it remembers and erases, regenerates and endures. Through process-based abstraction, Vaughan creates atmospheric compositions that blur the boundaries between painting, drawing, and sculpture. Her layered surfaces echo the sedimentary nature of place, where time, emotion, and material converge.
For Vaughan, “afterlife” is not an ending but a state of becoming, a continual exchange between what is lost and what remains. Rivers shift, fields are harvested and replanted, and yet their essence lingers. Her paintings embody this rhythm of renewal, their tactile marks suggesting both the scars and beauty of persistence.
Deeply informed by observation and intuition, Vaughan’s practice embraces slowness, repetition, and sensitivity to change. Each work is a meditation on process as much as place, a record of looking closely and being still long enough for the landscape to speak.
The Afterlife of Rivers and Fields invites reflection on how we shape our environments and how they shape us. It is a quiet, luminous testament to resilience, impermanence, and the enduring conversation between land, memory, and the self.
Artist Biography
Ali Vaughan
Ali Vaughan (b. 1997, Bakersfield, CA) is an artist based in Richmond, California. She received dual BA degrees in Art Practice and Art History from Stanford University in 2019. She regularly works between mediums of oil painting, drawing, and sculpture. Through process-based abstraction, her work examines notions of place and identity.
Vaughan’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries, among them the de Young Museum, San Francisco (CA); Porch Gallery, Carpinteria (CA); Coulter Gallery, Stanford (CA); Radio28 Gallery, Mexico City (MXMX); Bridge Gallery, Richmond (CA); Kala Art Gallery, Berkeley (CA); Art Cake, Brooklyn (NY); and Gallery RAM, Bakersfield (CA).
Images
Events
Exhibition Tours
Free with your BMoA Membership.
Saturday, February 14
Friday, March 13
Saturday, April 11
Artists on Artists
Saturday, March 14
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
A special conversation between visiting artists Ann Diener and Ali Vaughan as they discuss the ideas, processes, and landscapes that shape their work. Moderated in a casual, dialogue-driven format, the program offers insight into each artist’s evolving practice and the resonances between their work. A Q&A with the audience will follow.
ARTICULATED
Ali Vaughan | Friday, February 20, 12:00 PM
Ann Diener | Friday, March 20, 12:00 PM
Instagram Live conversation between exhibiting artists and curator Victor Gonzales about creative practice, inspiration, storytelling, and process.