For nearly five decades, Atlanta-based painter Corrine Colarusso has turned to the natural world for visual language and metaphoric depth. Her new exhibition, “Runaway Universe,” on view Nov. 8, 2025–Jan. 10, 2026, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA), continues that exploration through large-scale paintings that capture the fleeting, transformative qualities of light, weather, and time.
From the mirrored waters of the Okefenokee Swamp to the transient glimmer of twilight, Colarusso’s canvases vibrate with motion and reflection, worlds that seem to breathe and shift as you look. The exhibition is part of MOCA GA’s Working Artist Project, curated this cycle by Apsara DiQuinzio, senior curator of contemporary art at the Nevada Museum of Art. Following its Atlanta debut, a selection of works will travel to the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga (Jan. 30–Apr. 30, 2026), accompanied by a catalog essay by Walker Mimms.
In advance of her opening, Colarusso spoke with Rough Draft Atlanta about painting the imperceptible, finding focus in Georgia’s landscapes, and what she calls the “everyday spectacular.”
Your exhibition title, “Runaway Universe,” suggests both cosmic motion and escape. What ideas or sensations were you chasing as you created this body of work?
The title has several meanings. I’m interested in painting visual events that are hard to see or that happen very quickly—like clearing skies after a storm or changes in the air before rain. I’ve made paintings that visualize twilight as it descends and incorporates a landscape.
There’s a painting in the show called “Mirage,” where the sky and the reeds below merge and dissolve into each other. It refers to an atmospheric phenomenon that makes objects appear displaced, and it also underlines the illusion of what you see, because it is a painting.
My work wouldn’t be categorized as environmental activism. However, who among us isn’t aware of how quickly our world is changing—environmentally, politically—beyond our ability to catch up? I look at my country these days and I see a stranger. ‘Runaway Universe’ seemed to cover all the bases of what I’m painting and how I’m feeling right now.
You’ve described your paintings as “a way to know the fugitive world.” How do you translate something so ephemeral into form and color?
We all go about our lives trying to know the fugitive world. For me, painting—and paint itself—has been a dedicated engagement with that mystery. The fact that marks, lines, color, and material assembled together can move people is still astonishing to me.
Sometimes I feel like I’m just beginning to understand how to paint. The large paintings are like voyages that take months to complete. The smaller ones are like short stories—you try to offer a complete arc of visual information in a compressed format.
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Much of your work draws from Georgia’s natural landscapes. How has living and working in the South shaped your visual language?
When you’re young, you search in many directions to find footing. It’s ironic that my first trips to the Okefenokee—the “land of trembling earth”—helped me feel so grounded. I was moved by the shaggy landscape, the tannin-mirrored water. That experience made me abandon my trepidation about painting landscape, a genre often burdened by sentimentality.
Over time, my language has shifted. The landscapes, though based on observation and drawing, now serve as parallel worlds linked to inner selves.
You’ve spent decades teaching, exhibiting, and mentoring artists. How does this Working Artist Project fellowship fit into your artistic evolution?
My time teaching helped me become a better painter. Traveling to see great art and great landscapes continues to give me energy in the studio.
The Working Artist Project fellowship, conceived by Annette Cone-Skelton, has been extraordinary—the financial support, the catalog and essay by Walker Mimms, and my wonderful studio assistant, Nina Gonzalez Rubio. I hope this exhibition lives up to the expectations of the fellowship. Let’s call it my “November Portfolio.” Maybe there’ll be a retrospective one day—and we’ll call that the “December Portfolio.”
We live in a time when technology often feels more natural than nature itself. How do you hope this exhibition reconnects viewers to the “everyday spectacular”?
The natural world is there for the taking wherever you look. Grand places transport us quickly, but the immersive experience lies within us. The everyday spectacular can deliver—but it’s up to you to make it so. Perhaps my paintings will remind people to just look around.
This show will later travel to the Hunter Museum. What does it mean to see this work move beyond Atlanta?
It’s wonderful to show work in your hometown and also gratifying to share it with a wider audience. About one-third of the show will travel to the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga as part of the Hunter Invitational 5, curated by Nandini Makrandi. The gallery there is over 5,000 square feet, so it will look and feel a bit different. I’ll be giving an artist talk there on Mar. 5, 2026.
‘Runaway Universe” is on view Nov. 8, 2025–Jan. 10, 2026, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. The opening reception is Saturday, Nov. 8, 3–5 p.m. A catalog with an essay by Walker Mimms accompanies the exhibition.
