Lipan graduated with an MFA in painting from Western Carolina University in 2006. She studied at the Chautauqua Institute of Art in NY and American University’s Art in Italy program. In 2022, after nineteen years as Associate Professor at Anderson University in Indiana, Lipan accepted a position at Northern Arizona University.

Her paintings have been included in exhibits at First Street Gallery, Blue Mountain Gallery and Trestle Gallery in NY, Tucson Museum of Art in AZ, the Bristol Art Museum in RI, Indianapolis Arts Center, Women Made Gallery in Chicago and at universities including University of North Carolina Pembroke, Marshall University in WV, Marion University in IN, and Millersville in PA. Her recent solo exhibits include the Buckham Gallery in MI, the Harrison Center for the Arts in IN, Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts in WI.

Artist Statement:

My work envisions concealed spaces beneath monumental natural landscapes, where traces of past and present quietly emerge and dissolve within unstable terrain. Moving between surface and subterranean realms they suggest a future unearthed, an archaeology not of what was, but of what may come.

Through layered compositions I examine humanity’s evolving imprint on the land and how we enter and sometimes fracture sacred environments. Ladders reoccur as symbols of intrusion, aspiration, or collapse. Yet the landscape remains active, shifting and absorbing what is left behind. These works reflect on the fragility of human systems and the slow, persistent force of nature. They invite a quiet reckoning with time, consequence, and the terrain on which we stand.

Contact Information:

Email: tai.lipan@nau.edu

Website: https://www.tailipan.com/

Socials: instagram: @tailipan