KIM CARLINO | OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY NOVEMBER 10th 6-8pm
Live jazz piano by Ken Forfia and cello by Vernon David
*Masks are recommended.
Kim Carlino’s art is based in geometric abstraction and rooted in the historical language of 20th-century abstraction exploring issues of color, form, flatness, and pattern while juxtaposing abstracted forms from nature and the environment around us to create works that find harmony in the tension of contrasting elements. It is adaptable and improvisational, as it explores optical playfulness and spatial dimensionality through color, fluid organic forms, and geometric patterning.
Artist Biography:
Kim Carlino (b. 1977) works in Easthampton, Massachusetts. She received her BFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2011. Carlino has exhibited locally and nationally, including shows at the University Museum of Contemporary Art in Amherst, the 2019 Every Woman Biennial, Site Brooklyn Gallery, Garvey Simon Gallery, Alfa Gallery in Miami, the Grand Rapids ArtPrize, and a featured artist in the Pierogi Flat Files. Carlino was a member on the team of artists that installed the 25 year Drawing Retrospective of Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts in 2008. Her team installed Wall Drawing #38, Wall Drawing #142, and Wall Drawing #797. Carlino’s awards include the 2021 Blanche E. Colman Award, the Prutting Award for Painting, Bromfield Solo Competition, Dehn Visiting Artist Fellowship, and a 2016 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Drawing and Printmaking. Carlino has been painting murals since 2014 and has completed numerous mural commissions as well as public art projects for the City of Springfield, City of Colorado Springs, City of Northampton, Lower Eastside Business Improvement District, NYC Department of Transportation, Isenberg Projects in Boston, Turning Art, Grand Rapids ArtPrize, Marshalltown Iowa, Orange Virginia, the NYC Garment District Alliance and recently a commission for Google Headquarters in Cambridge, MA.
Artist Statement:
My art practice is rooted in embodied research and experience drawn from daily life. Color is influenced by my daily visual field ranging from digital imagery, cityscapes, and my ongoing world and pattern archive to my deep connection with the passing seasons, like the yellow of late summer goldenrod or the anticipation of bright green moss on a bright, sunny winter day. I begin each morning with time spent in nature looking at patterns of interconnection on hiking trails, bird sanctuaries or local walking paths. This time in nature grounds me and attunes my attention in preparation for the studio. My paintings begin by using fluid acrylic to pool, flow and interact with a sense of play and freedom to create organic structures that become starting points in the painting for interacting with. I am interested in creating a painting surface to be in relation to as a way to explore themes I’m interested in. This beginning phase of my work is an intuitive process honed by years of seeing what surfaces and materials are capable of. After this initial process of building up fluid and transparent layers of acrylic, I spend time looking at each work searching for an entry point into the organic structure in which to insert geometric forms, optical pattern motifs and repetitive linear mark making. This process can be fast or take weeks of looking at one painting. I’m looking for forms to reveal themselves and spaces within the organic structure to exploit in creating a sense of dimension and mystery. I work in acrylic and watercolor because a sense of movement and fluidity are central to the tension of the juxtaposition of the organic forms and the geometric forms.
CLICK respects and does not discriminate against people of any culture, religion, race, physical ability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.