Marthe Keller
Artist Statement:
I welcome abstraction’s ambition to remain indeterminate, proposing complex relationships. My painted fields offer space to straddle problems of flatness and issues of context. Brush strokes directly applied articulate my body’s reach. Indirect printed marks becomes images of themselves, iterating my history. Brushes, knives, printing plates, and homemade brushing machines aid in making my desire for ‘procedural blindness’ alternate with control. My palette has an origin story. Some colors I harvest, like black walnut, a translucent brown. Earths were inherited in Italy. Gray is zinc dust, that shifts and reflects. Black is perilene green, invented for military invisibility. Over 50 years I notice recurring elements appearing. Lately, it is a rectangle, a frame that signifies painting. It may arrive fully formed, an imprint with a history, or it may require a process of growing into relationship. I take it as an invitation, a doorway that holds space open for painting.
Artist Biography:
Marthe Keller lives and works in NYC and Falls Village, CT. She has exhibited since 1976 with 29 solo shows. Marthe was represented by Rosenberg/Kaufman Fine Art, NY from 1986-2002. Her painting, Diva, was on view in the Metropolitan Museum from 1998-2004. Keller’s shows have been reviewed in such publications as Art in America, Artnews, Arts Magazine, Flash Art and Tema Celeste. Her work is represented in museums such as the Whitney, Metropolitan, MoMA, British, Brooklyn, San José, and GB Kunst, DE. She has received awards from the NEA, NYFA, CETA, MacDowell Colony and others. Keller grew up in the Hudson Valley, NY and in Rome, Italy. She earned a BFA from the Maryland Institute, an MFA from Queens College, CUNY and studied Art Therapy at George Washington University. Marthe co-founded and directed the BAU Institute Arts residency. She has taught at many institutions including currently at Hunter College, CUNY.
AAA:
Member Since: 1994
Editor AAA Journal: 1999 – 2010
Committee: Publications
