Lisa Kellner

My work explores dimension, space and systems of mark making. I’m interested in forging spatial relationships between the physical and the intangible. Inspired by nature, history and the spaces humans create for themselves, my paintings conflate place and structure with memory and perception. A blending occurs; consolidating all into one.

I like pairing odd elements together: the shape of the space under a chair with marks made by my fingernail; or a crevasse in an old tree with patterns of stains on a city sidewalk. All of these find their way into my abstractions. I paint as a way of understanding how these elements can exist together; both on the canvas and in life.

The objective here is to build within each work an ‘environment’; a vista formed on the basis of a synergy of contrasts embedded with human perception.

Lisa Kellner’s paintings and sculptural constructions have been exhibited throughout the United States at exhibiting institutions including the Bellevue Arts Museum (WA), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (NY), the Brooklyn Arts Council (NY), the Weatherspoon Museum (NC), the Islip Art Museum, Washington Project for the Arts and the Muscarelle Museum of Art (VA), among others. She has created site-responsive Paintings in Space for the Cornell Fine Arts Museum (FL), the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (ME), Lehman College Art Gallery (NY) and the Target Gallery at the Torpedo Factory (VA). In addition, Kellner has worked with galleries such as Ascent Contemporary (NY), Project 4 (DC), BravinLee Projects (NY) and JoAnne Artman (LA). Kellner’s work has been reviewed and mentioned in publications including The New York Times, The Boston Globe and Sculpture Magazine.

Kellner was awarded the New Media Invitational from the Target Gallery, DC in 2016. She was also a Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist semi-finalist. In 2017, her paintings on stretched silk were included in the group exhibition: Materiality: The Matter of Matter at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (ME), curated by Bethany Engstrom. Kellner’s solo exhibition in Cambridge, MA, Surface Consumption, included paintings, wall sculptures and a site responsive Painting in Space. Her recent solo exhibition, I Dream in Layers, was held during the pandemic crisis of 2020 and included a virtual experience. Also during the pandemic, Kellner participated in several group exhibitions and organized a curated exhibition, What Matters Most, of thirty artists with artist/curator Huguette Despault May. In 2022, Kellner’s work will be included in several group and solo exhibitions.