Caroline Kent is a Chicago-based American visual artist. Her art ranges from paintings on canvas and paper to installations and wall paintings to performance and sculpture. She is also a Professor of Art, Theory and Practice at Northwestern University.
In speaking about her creative inspiration, she draws from her own personal experiences and her cultural heritage. She is very close with her twin sister and their unique style of communicating has influenced her art. A big part of her creative process is focusing on how her art can be a vessel for displaying the power and limitations of communication. Some of her other inspirations included Russian Constructivism and foreign films, as well as pastel colors.
"In my expanded painting practice, I am driven by a curiosity to discover where language, abstraction, and painting converge. Painting is not a means to an end but a beginning. I ambition to discover alternative logics to modernist endeavors—to consider how a painting language connects image to object, eludes location, and is expanded through acts of translation.”
A few of her art pieces include:
How Objects Move Through Walls/ Company Projects, MPLS (2016) is a collection of large-scale paintings, wall installations, and sculptures that include a performance piece as shown in the image above.
“Musings on how to leave and re-enter a room” (2020)
“Joyful is in the Dark” (2016)
Among the many awards she has won, Caroline Kent also was one of the 2020 recipients of the “Painters & Sculptors Grants” which gives $25,000 to each of the 25 awarded artists. The grant seeks to “support and nurture the lives and careers of working artists, recognizing that creative endeavor is best supported through robust and unrestricted financial support” (joanmitchellfoundation.org).
In learning about Caroline Kent, I recalled the article we read several weeks ago called, “Openness to Experience: The Gates of the Mind.” The article explained how people who have an “openness to experience” are generally more intellectually curious, creative, imaginative, and more interested in art. A person’s openness can also reflect a greater “breadth, depth, and permeability of consciousness.” When people view her work, Kent hopes that they approach the art with an openness to understand what the visual art is communicating. Her work includes aspects of abstraction which reflects her desire to stray from rigidity.
If you’re interested in viewing any of her art in person, you can head to The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago anytime until June 3rd, 2022!
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This is an amazing creative, and her works are beautiful. I love how Caroline sees a language being communicated through her art. When I look at art, often words fail to describe that piece and the images are a way to fill the void. I also appreciate in the first quote you included she uses the word “translation”. That got me thinking that art and paintings transcend modern language as people who cannot always understand each other, may view art in the same way. She captures the power of images through her artwork. The connections her art conveys is truly inspiring and I look forward to touring her exhibit.
ReplyDeleteI knew absolutely nothing about Caroline Kent before reading this, but I looked up some of her art and I really liked it. "further and farther than one expects" and "Victoria/Veronica: The Figment Between Us" are my favorites so far. Caroline possessing an "openness to experience" makes a lot of sense; her work seems experimental to me, and she doesn't seem afraid of trying anything. I'll definitely try to hit this exhibit soon!
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