ARTIST STATEMENT

My large-scale abstract oil paintings serve as investigations into the architecture of human values, and the visceral mechanics of ethical contradiction. Far from aesthetic exercises, these works are deeply rooted in philosophical inquiry, translating complex, often contradictory, modalities of belief and adaptation into a commanding visual language.

The core of my practice lies in confronting the inherent dissonance and tension that define the contemporary human condition. I utilize the potent materiality of oil to construct fields of substantive conceptual weight. Energetic verticality becomes a metaphor for striving, ascent, and the relentless pressure of value assertion, continually disrupted by collisions of color and texture that represent conflict.

This exploration of dissonance reflects themes that emerge from lived experience and philosophical inquiry, finding powerful validation in the work of thinkers like Heraclitus, Hegel, and Carl Jung. My process addresses the pressure embedded in Jung’s tension of opposites: the necessity of holding conflicting elements together, allowing a powerful synthesis to emerge from the friction.

In a market often saturated by fleeting trends, my work distinguishes itself through its rigorous engagement with fundamental human concerns and its commitment to the legacy of Abstract Expressionism—not through replication, but through expansion. Each piece is a dialectical landscape, where human experience is forged into a universally resonant narrative, inviting the viewer to stand before a painted embodiment of their own existential opposition and the emergence of a new, unified reality.

The commitment within this practice is to create work that is both intellectually challenging and profoundly compelling, destined to provoke the viewer to pause and question the certainty of belief and the process of resolution. This is a singular voice that transforms internal conflict into lasting, unified visual architecture, urging openness to disruption and the productive power of uncertainty, thereby affirming its place within the crucial discourse of abstraction.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Kelly Messer (b. 1980, Minnesota) is a contemporary American painter whose practice distills the complexities of human experience into commanding, synthesized abstract architecture.

Honed in a rural landscape, her early drive led to European travel and a poised move to Chicago to pursue a professional career. Messer's foundation in Interior Design (BFA, University of Wisconsin) quickly led her into the domain of high-end commercial design. There, designing furniture and orchestrating large-scale installations for NeoCon, alongside her later career in digital product design, she gained hands-on mastery of scale, composition, and holistic synthesis across both physical and technological landscapes.

The subsequent immersion into a complex landscape became the catalyst for continuous philosophical transitions, demanding a re-evaluation of established paradigms. This necessity for intellectual rigor and visual synthesis fuels her studio practice, leading to a pivotal conceptual shift into abstraction in 2017.

Her artistic commitment to the tension of opposites resonates deeply with the philosophical inquiries of Heraclitus, Hegel, and Carl Jung. Messer's work is celebrated for its powerful materiality and intellectual gravitas, transforming life’s profound contradictions into a unified, resolved visual reality that contributes meaningfully to the contemporary abstract canon.