The work of Gabi Clayton and pug Bujeaud will be on view in the State Theater Lobby throughout the run of The Foreigner, March 5 – March 29th, 2026.
About the Artists
Gabi Clayton’s art interprets contemporary life − people, creatures, and the environment. Her figures are abstracted and intentionally distorted. They may be whimsical, and also sometimes involve social and political commentary. They work with an awareness of color, line, and gesture while mostly keeping the surface flat − meaning they use very little modeling or illusion of depth, paying attention to texture and edges of the piece and the relationship to the frame. There is ample historical precedence for the work including The Hairy Who, the Chicago Imagists: Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke, Gladys Nilsson; the great Phillip Guston, drawings by Saul Steinberg, and the painted poems of Kenneth Patchen, an early and continuing influence.
pug Bujeaud is an Olympian native who has been a vital part of the local theater community as an actor, director, playwright, and a founder and current artistic director of Theater Artists Olympia (TAO). During lockdown pug contracted long COVID that left her with chronic brain fog affecting her ability to read and write. She fortuitously came across the documentary Painting with John, which focuses on John Lurie’s process of painting, which he found to be a form of salvation after battling health issues, forcing him to quit playing music. pug invested in the necessities for watercolor and dove in. As a thespian she has always been interested in the duality of human nature, of looking through other’s eyes, and from interesting angles. A world she continues to explore both on stage, and with her brushes.
