Kristie Keenon

I am a woman. I am white. I am queer. These conditions are important in my external and internal life. They have influenced the lens through which I see the world and how I am perceived by the world. The paintings I create are responses to these perceptions.

People of various status and ethnicities often populate my work as a means to reference the many facets of gender, class, race and queerness. I explore the systematic ideals of the status quo and reconstruct images to examine the matters surrounding identity and authenticity. Working from my own collection of photos and found images on social media networks, I alter the original images on a computer: colors are heightened, forms are redefined and occasionally environments are remixed. These complexities are then further translated through the process of painting. I present transient moments in people's realities through my abstract perceptions. The intentional abstraction reconstructs preconceived notions and is visually pleasing. The stereotype becomes idiosyncratic.

Our daily lives are inundated and entwined with digital media, visual images and hype but this does not mean that our physicality or reasoning is compromised but changed. In contrast to the rapid evolvement...

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MFA, BFA