Molly Champlin
Augmented Visions

September 20th - October 12th, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 20th, 7-10pm

Monte Vista Projects is pleased to present Augmented Visions, showcasing the work of Molly Champlin, an artist whose abstract paintings delve into the intersection of the physical and virtual. In her work, Champlin engages with, exploits, and critiques the very technologies that have become embedded in our daily lives, tools that simultaneously offer new creative possibilities and act as frontiers for the extraction of resources. These rapid technological shifts, such as AI, social media, the iPhone, and the internet, reshape our experience of landscapes, time, and humanity.

Champlin begins by constructing worlds using 3D modeling software that serve as the basis for her colorful paintings. These studies are then printed, collaged, and transformed into large-scale oil paintings that envelope the viewer. The resulting works blur the boundaries between human touch and machine precision, creating surreal landscapes where digital aesthetics merge with painterly tradition.

Her work reflects the collision of digital reality with physical existence, highlighting concerns about the rapid evolution of technology, environmental instability, and the unknowns of an AI-driven future. More than just a critique, these paintings offer a moment of pause, an invitation to reconnect with the body, to feel the weight of color and texture, and to engage in the slow act of looking. In a world accelerating toward digital immersion, Champlin’s work asks us to reconsider how we approach the future, with care, intention, and a renewed awareness of what it means to be present.

Molly Champlin is an artist and educator, and has exhibited in group shows across the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and internationally in Japan. She received the Kleefeld Scholarship, the Nell O. Fog Endowed Scholarship, and the Cal Alumni Association Leadership Award. She holds a BA in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University, Long Beach. She teaches at Cal State Long Beach and lives in the San Gabriel Valley.