KATHRYN KERR

Mosquito Valley
On View: June 5-July 4, 2021
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 5, 12-6 pm

Kathryn Kerr, Lead Burrito, 2021, oil and acrylic on canvas, 58.5 x 62.5 inches

In “Down Neck,” the seventh Sopranos episode and the only one directed by a woman, Dr. Melfi prompts Tony to access childhood memories of his father’s occupational brutality. The soundtrack of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” implies that the doors of perception have been unlocked by Tony’s experimentation with analysis and that the experience is ominous and psychedelic.

Another story about excavation: When 15th century Romans found Nero’s ruined unfinished villa, they nicknamed the chambers with the frescos “grottos.” The paintings featured scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphosis and were called “grottesche.”

Like Tony and his ancestors, the paintings in this show are engaged in processes of discovery, of the self, and of other entangled artifacts. I like to think of them as being part of the grotesque tradition. Taking inspiration from the mosquito, whose belly mingles the blood of many… they combine strange and mysterious forms, tempering the agony of transformation with humor. “Feed your head.”

— Sophy Naess

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Kathryn Kerr received a B.F.A. from Cooper Union in 2004 and an M.F.A. in painting from the Yale School of Art in 2018. She has taught drawing and printmaking at the Yale School of Art and the Yale Norfolk Program and has given lectures on her work at Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien in Austria and at Middlebury College in Vermont. Recent exhibitions include group shows at And Now in Dallas, Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer in Vienna, and Magenta Plains in New York City. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Shandaken Project, NY; Palazzo Stabile in Italy; and Tilleard Projects in Lamu, Kenya.