Claire Kirkup

Cultivating a portal

2023

Karen Silve developed an interest in Post-Impressionist and Fauvist painting, and they informed her early figurative abstractions. She studied in the graduate painting and design programs at the University of Denver, creating abstract work that was inspired by the landscape and by the color lessons she learned in France. Later, the Abstract Expressionist painters Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell, and the German artist Gerhard Richter became important influences on her work. In 1993, Silve moved to Portland, Oregon, worked in graphic design and began to explore painterly process in a series of meditative paintings. In the late 1990s, she created two extended groups of paintings, first the Musician Series, and then the Cellist Series. Both series focused on players with their instrument, and on a feeling for music expressed through abstracting the human figure, gestural brush strokes and vibrant color. After this she moved on to rhythmic, calligraphic brush strokes and drips of paint. Evolving from this period is the ongoing series of abstract paintings that Silve continues to create. Silve has exhibited her work extensively in solo exhibitions including at the Portland Performing Arts Center, the Forsyth Center Gallery at Texas A&M University, the Visual Art Center of Northwest Florida, the Tuscaloosa Performing Arts Center and the West Linn Public Library in Oregon. Group exhibitions include those at The Institute for American Universities, Aix-in-Provence, France, the Jemison-Carnegie Heritage Hall...

Inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protesters of May 1968, Robert Montgomery’s text-ba...

Inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protesters of May 1968, Robert Montgomery’s text-ba...

Inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protesters of May 1968, Robert Montgomery’s text-ba...

Inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protesters of May 1968, Robert Montgomery’s text-ba...

Inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protesters of May 1968, Robert Montgomery’s text-ba...

This dress painting on board blends mediums to create textured detail with an outcome both expressive and refined. A scripted pencil pattern adds to the layers of tone on tone neutra...

This dress painting features an interplay of paint and lace textile with an outcome both expressive and refined. Through the process of adding and subtrac...

Oblique Seams on Blue is an artwork realized by the Italian contemporary artist Mario Bigetti in 2020. Mixed media: acrylic painting on yellow colored canvas, twine, and seams. Hand-signed and dated on the back. A minimal wood frame is included 53.5 x 3 x 53.5 cm Good conditions. This original painting is realized with a a vivid blue colored acrylic paint on canvas and presents two red cuts on its surface. The painting consists in only one homogeneous vivid color. The cuts are mended with twine, like stitches do for healing wounds. The artist was certainly inspired by the great Italian artist Lucio Fontana, whom created the concept of Spatialism and came up with the idea of space inside a flat surface like the one for painting. Mario Bigetti, a Roman contemporary...

Oblique Seams on Yellow is an original artwork realized by the Italian contemporary artist Mario Bigetti in 2020. Mixed media: acrylic painting on yellow colored canvas, twine, and seams. Hand-signed and dated on the back. A minimal wood frame is included 64.5 x 3 x 84 cm Good conditions. This original painting is realized with a a vivid yellow colored acrylic paint on canvas and presents four cuts on its surface. The painting consists in only one homogeneous vivid color. The cuts are mended with twine, like stitches do for healing wounds. The artist was certainly inspired by the great Italian artist Lucio Fontana, whom created the concept of Spatialism and came up with the idea of space inside a flat surface like the one for painting. Mario Bigetti, a Roman contemporary...

Seams on Silver is an original artwork realized by the Italian contemporary artist Mario Bigetti in 2020. Mixed media: acrylic painting on canvas, twine, and seams. Hand-signed and dated on the back. A minimal wood frame blue colored is included 44 x 3 x 44 cm Good conditions. This original painting is realized witha a vivid silver acrylic paint on canvas and presents two cuts on its surface. The painting consists in only one homogeneous vivid color. The cuts are mended with twine, like stitches do for healing wounds. The artist was certainly inspired by the great Italian artist Lucio Fontana, whom created the concept of Spatialism and came up with the idea of space inside a flat surface like the one for painting. The artwork has been realized by Mario Bigetti, a Roman contemporary...

A Villon is a beautiful artwork realized by Maurizio Gracceva in the 2008. Black and white acrylic on paper Hand signed by the artist. Author of n...