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Gallery |
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Artist Statement:
I am a painter obsessed
with the human form, particularly the male form. Recently I was asked
to come up with a pithy description of my artwork. I settled on: "I
paint people - mostly people in their underpants." A more complex
description would acknowledge that I work from found photographs and
part of what drives the image is the fact that it was lost or
discarded; it is a fragment of a narrative. My paintings are
fragments, too. They are deliberately and glaringly unfinished. I
create a detailed and complete image and with brushes, rags and knives
proceed to distort, obscure, erase and manipulate the image in search
of visual balance. Faces are smeared, limbs are only implied, messy
brushwork and drips contrast realistic elements of academic
portraiture. Even in the more ridiculous images - middle-aged men with
their pants down or displaying proud, pink bellies - I try to imbue
the subject with a dignity and humanity. I am deeply affectionate
towards my subjects, despite, or, perhaps because of the fact that,
they nameless strangers. |
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Selected Exhibitions: |
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2020 |
Kirsten Valentine, "Broken Play," Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
Kirsten Valentine, "Ranch Style House," Merwin &
Wakeley Gallery, IL
Wesleyan College, Bloomington, IL
Collide, group show, Young Chicago Authors, Chicago, IL
Four Women, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL |
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2019 |
Open Call, Delphian Gallery, London, England, U.K.
7th Annual Art Competition, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, IL
Pizza in the Rain: Landscapes, group show, Vertical Gallery, Chicago,
IL
Work@ Play: group show, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
7th Annual Art Competition, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, IL |
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2018 |
The Other Art Fair Chicago, Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL
Tiny Acts Topple Empires, Woskob Family Gallery,
State College, PA curator: Heather D. Bhandari
6th Annual Art Competition, Bridgeport Art
Center, Chicago, IL |
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2017 |
Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series, Gallery Guichard, Chicago, IL
Nasty Woman, Stan Mansion, Chicago, IL |
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2015 |
Un86’d, Sportsman Club, Chicago, IL |
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2014 |
Sing The Body Electric, Saatchi Online, online exhibition |
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2011 |
Kirsten Valentine: Fight!, Solo Exhibition, Chicago Art Department,
Chicago, IL
Cultural Excavation, Chicago Art Department, Chicago, IL |
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2010 |
200, Chicago Art Department, Chicago, IL |
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Publications:
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2019 |
The Beautiful People, Interview with Kirsten Valentine,
ProvkMag.com, 2019
Barzakh, Issue 11, May 11, 2019
Quarter Marks, Volume 6, August 2019 |
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2018 |
Kirsten Valentine,
Create Magazine, March 7, 2018, Issue VIII
Noble/Gas Quarterly, Issue 205.1, March 22, 2018
The Figure and Power Dynamics: Interview with Kirsten
Valentine, Create Magazine, 3/7/18
Kirsten Valentine: Dark and Dreamy, Howl Magazine, April 3,
2018 |
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