October Constituent of the Month: Paula Overbay

Paula Overbay arrived in Brooklyn from Portland, Oregon, in 1997, settled into a studio in DUMBO, and continued to paint and exhibit. She became a political activist during the Health Care Debate and moved into the Artist/Activist position when the opportunity arose to spearhead a  public mural in her community of Crown Heights.  The project is being painted by four talented interns under Overbay’s guidance,  and funded generously by Senator Eric Adams, neighborhood leaders, local merchants,  and friends. 

Overbay’s work has been exhibited widely across the United States including New York, Cambridge , Houston, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Portland (OR), Pittsburgh (PA) and Boston.  Paula has a BFA from the Pacific NW College of Art and a MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Recent shows include: THE ABSTRACT UNIVERSE: Microcosm/Macrocosm” at the College of St. Elizabeth, NJ, curated by Dr. Virginia Fabbri Butera; “THE SHIFT: Art & Spirit,” curated by Kristin Reed at the Knox Gallery, New York, NY; and “COSMOLOGY” at Storefront Bushwick in Brooklyn, curated by Deborah Brown, and “Teacher/Student: Instructor/Muse” an exhibition at the NY Institute of Technology in New York curated by Jennifer Mitchell this past September. 

She has been honored with residencies at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire and recently returned from her third residency at the Ragdale Foundation in Illinois where she created paintings for “COSMOLOGY” and future shows. Her work has been reviewed in publications such as the NY Times and Art in America. 

www.paulaoverbay.com