Meet Galina Livit
I’m a Michigan-based contemporary artist drawn to texture, depth, and the expressive possibilities of materials. I build layered, dimensional paintings where tactile surfaces merge with atmospheric landscape elements.
I never set out to be an artist. I studied applied mathematics and built a career in enterprise technology. My art practice is largely self-taught and self-directed, driven by curiosity about materials. My analytical mind tests what a medium can structurally do; my intuition guides what happens on the canvas.
Painting started on a dare in 2020. During lockdown, a close friend sent me boxes of acrylics, brushes and a few canvases to cheer me up during a rough stretch. The gesture made me smile, but the supplies sat untouched for months until my daughter dragged them out onto the dining table. At the same time, my husband had just repainted our bathroom wall for the third time, trying to get me to finally approve the color. Pointing at the blank wall and the mess on the table, he jokingly dared me to paint something for it.
I took the challenge. I picked up a palette knife and made my first abstract, which worked surprisingly well for that wall. I haven’t stopped painting since.
I’ve learned through studying, experimenting, making, and remaking. Texture became central to my work: building it, breaking through it, letting color settle into its crevices or light catch its edges. I work primarily with acrylics, combined with graphite, raw pigments, inks, pastels, oil & cold wax, and textural compounds.
Growing up in Moscow, I absorbed a culture where art, literature, and music carried immense weight, speaking when nothing else could. That emotional depth anchors my work, while my mathematical mind obsesses over structure, tension, and spatial balance.
My work is known for its immersive quality. People often tell me they find themselves standing in front of my paintings for a long time. There is more to discover as they look. That’s the point.
Today, my work is exhibited in Michigan galleries and held in private collections across the US, Europe, and Israel. Each canvas remains an open experiment—structured by intention, freed by intuition.
Exhibitions
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September - October 2026 — Group Exhibition, Romolo Bar Romana, Pleasant Ridge, MI
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July - August 2026 — Solo Show at Chris Nordin Studios Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
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May 2026 — Intermingled Currents, two-artist exhibition, Lawrence Street Gallery, Ferndale, MI
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2023 – Present — Group Exhibitions, Lawrence Street Gallery, Ferndale, MI
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December 2024 — Exhibiting Artist, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, Birmingham, MI
