Lisa Kellner

Lisa Kellner’s paintings explore the act of observation and how experience impacts perception. Her work draws attention to the often unnoticed aspects of the natural world and how humans interact with these environments. In her paintings standards of beauty are questioned by honing in on the decayed, aged and storm riddled. She uses matured flowers, coastal granite ledges, her father’s American flag from the 1960’s and her grandmother’s antique linens (as well as other personal mundane objects) as place holders that reference navigating societal issues. By encountering the overlooked and neglected in her work, the paintings reveal a relationship with history and time.

Kellner’s paintings draw from her interest in growing things, grounding with nature and cultivating the land. She takes her cues from nature’s ability to organize chaos and create new forms out of decay. Through a system of layering, scraping and sanding, the painting’s surface is built up slowly allowing for patterns to emerge and subtleties to come to the forefront. Particular attention is paid to how space is occupied; balancing empty space with filled and observing their interactions. Teetering between the simplicity of form and the complexity of thought, the paintings shift the familiar into moments of contemplation, reflection and seeing anew.

Photo & Bio courtesy of the artist.