Adventurous and relentlessly curious, Abigail Custis fills her canvases with as much visual information as possible. Custis is an abstract painter who plays with all the physical possibilities of acrylic paint. Thick, streaky, layered, spattered, spiky, soft - there are textures in her body of work that may never have been associated with acrylic before. She is able to create from both ends of the spectrum. This extends to her color palette as well. A single piece can contain every neon, every earth tone, every highlight and shadow. Custis is able to keep the eye wondering but not confused.
Many of Custis's compositions eschew a central organizing principle. Instead, they are constructed out of collections: collections of one kind of brushstroke, or of a certain kind of color treatment, or of many small shapes coming together. Other works have a shape to them that relates more to a representational image.
Custis was born in Salisbury, Maryland and has lived between Virginia and Maryland. She currently spends her summers painting on the eastern shore of Virginia and has exhibited widely in the area, including a show in Washington, D.C.
