Kelly Queener Paintings

Artist’s Statement (2017)

These paintings reveal territories that have their own rules and strange physics. Sudden contrasts between deep and flat space, abstract and representational forms, exacting and blunt brushstrokes, coalesce to create new worlds.

Abstraction is an opportunity to bring dimension to impossible combinations of color and form. This offers the viewer a new space and a sense of curious trespass. The occasional representational form is included to lend an aspect of its original function to the overall meaning of the work. For example, the hand is often depicted as a totem to how we perceive, and a haptic invitation to imagine touching these spaces, not only to view with the eyes.

These unexpected partnerships between the representational and the abstract feed into the sense of wonder and flexibility in perception that I seek. I’m looking to create an encounter where the visual elements conspire to create an image both eager and elusive, entirely foreign and strangely familiar. I believe this sort of encounter is beautifully stripped of agenda outside of an essentially human ability to perceive, explore and play.