KELTIE FERRIS
b. 1977
Keltie Ferris’s unique approach to abstraction maps the catalytic qualities of medium and technique onto expressions of physicality, energy, and change. His works thrum with a vibrant use of color and a diverse deployment of pictorial forms and textural applications. Hand-painted pattern fields, bursts of spray paint and oil pastel, raised outlines, and pixelated backgrounds nod to a wide range of visual lineages, from natural motifs and ancient craftwork to modern Expressionism and contemporary digital image cultures. In his large-scale paintings, thick areas of medium are built up, then alternately swiped, blurred, and removed with a variety of tools. By deconstructing his own process of painting into its most fundamental actions and materials, Ferris offers an expansive vision of abstraction as a site of formal experimentation and conceptual ingenuity.
This keen articulation of materiality is further evinced by an ongoing series of body prints, which transform painting into a personal index. Using natural oils and pigments, Ferris wields his own body as a brush and imprints its form onto the canvas or paper surface. The artist thus becomes both process and material, action and image—a presence conveyed through each imprinted mark, reifying the relationship between Ferris’s self and the work of art.
Keltie Ferris (b. 1977, Louisville, KY) received his BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2004 and his MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2006. His work has recently been shown in solo exhibitions at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York (2023, 2021); Morán Morán, Mexico City (2023), Los Angeles, CA (2019); Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf, Germany (2019); and the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY (2018). His work is included in the public collections of the Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC; Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN; the San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; and the Speed Museum of Art, Louisville, KY, among others.
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