About

Lou Haney creates paintings of domestic spaces that employ nostalgia as a means of temporary escape from the corrupt and chaotic realities of present day life. Using oil, acrylic, fiber art, and mixed media, she explores themes of memory, yearning, and femininity to evoke tension between fantasy and reality.

Lou Haney (b. 1977, Decatur, AL) received a BA from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, and an MFA in Painting from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA. Her work will be or has been subject of solo presentations at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA (2027); Museum of Contemporary Art, Arlington, VA (2026); and IA&A Hillyer, Washington, DC (2025). Haney has participated in group exhibitions and art fairs, including the Spring/Break Art Fair, New York (2025, 2023, and 2022), Seattle Art Fair (2026) Reynolds Gallery (Richmond, 2025) James Oliver Gallery (Philadelphia, 2026) and Spectrum Fine Arts (Seattle, 2024). She was the recipient of the Mississippi Art Commission Individual Artist Fellowship (2008), and has attended residencies at MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center,the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Wildacres in North Carolina. Haney’s work is in public collections such as the Bunker Artspace, FL; the Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection; University of Mary Washington, VA; and Claremont Graduate University, CA, among others.

Haney currently teaches Studio Art and Art History at Piedmont Virginia Community College, Sweet Briar College, and Buford Middle School. The artist lives and works in Charlottesville, Virginia.