Kristin Calabrese

Kristin Calabrese is a visual artist who lives in Los Angeles.  She works primarily in painting, although she also curates, sometimes does performance art, sculpture and photography, and is an eager participant in all sorts of other people’s projects.  She received her BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1994 and her MFA from UCLA in 1998.  Calabrese’s painting practice relies on representation as a tool to transform canvasses into living objects that embody focused fragments of Kristin’s life force.Akin to voodoo dolls, she aims to speak through the paintings.  They communicate specific, sometimes transient, thoughts and feelings of the artist. Because of the private nature of the act of painting, Kristin’s paintings have become invested in both their own object-ness and their relationship to the artist’s body.  This makes up the skeletal structure of the paintings.  The overlying content including psychology, sociology, and humor tend to balance on a point of conflict. Calabrese has exhibited with Gagosian, Brennan & Griffin, Lee Koenig and Susanne Vielmetter.  She also curates provocative group shows with her partner, painter Joshua Aster.

CV

Born in San Francisco, CA
Lives and works in Los Angeles


Education:      

1998  MFA, Painting and Drawing, University of California, Los Angeles.
1995  BFA, Painting Major, San Francisco Art Institute, CA.
1994  Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME.
        New York Studio Program, New York, spring.


Solo Exhibitions:

2011               
"Back of My Face", Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles, CA
"Hold Your Breath", Brennan and Griffin Gallery, New York, NY

2004               
“Ever1a57in6 60b570pper,” Leo Koenig, Inc., New York, NY

2002               
“Checkmate,” Michael Janssen, Cologne, Germany.

2000             
“Recent Paintings”,   Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills.

1998              
“Black + Blue,” Brent Peterson Gallery, Los Angeles.                      
“New Work”, Room 702, Los Angeles.

1995               
“House Work,” SCI-ARC, Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2011
"The Optimists' Parking Lot", curated by Suzanne Adelman and Keith Walsh Beacon Art Building, Inglewood, CA
"The Thirteenth Grade", curated by Mary Anna Pomonis, PØST, Los Angeles, CA

2010               
“Honeymoon”, two person show with Joshua Aster, curated by Micol Hebron, Salt Lake
 Art Center, Salt Lake City, UT
"Kristin Calabrese, Meg Cranston, and Monique van Genderen", Brandstrup, Oslo, Norway
 “Gray Day”, curated by Noah Davis, Roberts + Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Second Story”, artist multiple show, Pepin Moore, Los Angeles, CA
“Kristin Calabrese, Andy Parker, Mary Weatherford, Roger White”, Kathryn Brennan Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
"Mannlicher CarcanoPlex Mach 01", curated by Doug Harvey, PØST, Los Angeles, CA

2009               
“lovable like bastard children and orphaned kitties”, The Green Gallery, Milwakee, WI
“Feelings and Power”, 533, Los Angeles, CA

2008               
“New Work”, LA Art House, West Hollywood, CA
“Some Paintings, LA Weekly Biennial”, curated by Doug Harvey, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
“Gangbusters”, Plane Space, New York, NY

2007               
“Lines”, curated by Susie Rosmarin, Texas Gallery, Houston, TX
“No Jerks”, curated by Matt Chambers, The Rental Gallery, New York, NY
"Dedicated to the Search for the Miraculous", curated by Julian Rogers, Soo-Plex, Nashville, TN
“Hovering over the universe I aim my laser pistol into the eye of the universe and time slows down, is splayed out so I can see the interlocking spirals and splatted fractal glowing shapes, all different sizes and moving different speeds, but when seen from this vantage point, their spiney glorious and gorgeous perfection when seen all together...”Honor Fraser Gallery, Venice Beach, CA
"Big Secret Cache", Angstrom Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Glenn Goldberg and NYC Artists”, Philip Slein Gallery, curated by Glenn Goldberg, Saint Louis,MO
“True Love Always”, curated by Rebecca Campbell, Angles Gallery, Venice, CA
 
2006               
“Hysteria”, Angles Gallery, Venice, CA
“Untitled Group Show”, Angstrom Gallery, Dallas, TX
“LA Artgirls Fluxwear Event” included in “Draw a Line and Follow It”, LACE, Los Angeles
“Total Art Performance Event”, LA Artgirls event, curated by Glenn Phillips, Getty Center, Los Angeles
 “Hotel California”, curated by Daniel Hug and Roger Dickes, Glendale Community College, Glendale, CA
“New Orleans Art Auction”, Blum and Poe, Los Angeles, CA

2005               
“LA Art Girls’ Work”, Anna Helwing Gallery, Los Angeles                        
“Apocalypse Soon!”, QED Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Little Things”, curated by Heather Brown, Blue 7 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
“We Can Do It!”, Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Moscow, Russia
“A Warlike People”,curated by Lara Taubman, Monorchid Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
“Pets”, ICA, Monterrey, Mexico

2004               
“Self-portraiture”,curated by Rebecca Campbell, Angles Gallery, Venice, CA
“Resistance, Rebellion, and Death”, curated by Jacqueline Cooper, Narrenshiff, San Francisco, CA

2003               
“Breathless,”curated by Jacqueline Cooper, 608 Fulsom St., San Francisco, CA.
                      
2002               
Contemporary Art Project Exhibition, Seattle Art Museum, WA (through 2003)
California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA.

2001               
“Rogue Wave: Eleven Artists From L.A.,” L.A. Louver, Los Angeles.
“I Am A Camera,” Saatchi Gallery, London

2000               
Group Show, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills.
“Emotional Rescue: The ContemporaryArtProject Collection,” Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA.
“Extraextralarge,” curated by Dave Muller, Kapinos Galerie, Berlin.

1999               
“Three Day Weekend,” CCAC, San Francisco, CA.

1998               
“Sig-Alert,” University Museum, Tempe, AZ.                       
“Under One Roof: Inhabited Space:” Artist Depictions, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA.

1997 
Juried Exhibition, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park.

1995               
“Inner City Arts Benefit Auction,” Santa Monica Museum, CA.
“Dreams of Life and Death,” The Living Room, Santa Monica, CA.
“Untitled Video Show,”curated by Evan Holloway, Century Cable, Channel 3

1994               
“Escape to LA from the Chateau Marmont,” curated by Jennifer Schlossberg, West Hollywood, CA.
“Low Cool,” Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA.
“Way Cool,” Exit Art, New York.
“La Fin de Siecle Syndrome,” New York Studio Program, NY.

1993    

“Positive Resource,” Life Center, San Francisco, CA

“Spring Show,” San Francisco Art Institute, CA                           

Honors and Awards

2011     FOCA Curators’ Lab award, Los Angles, CA

1996-8  Lillian Levinson Award, University of California, Los Angeles, CA