Kimberly Engel

I rarely begin a body of work with a fixed subject. Instead, painting is an exploration of myself—and ultimately, the dissolving of myself into the process. Patterns and themes only reveal themselves after periods of rest. In recent years, my work has often carried layers of transparency and spaciousness, interrupted by bursts of agitated marks or discordant color. The moments I find most compelling are those when I completely surrender, dissolving into the process so that the marks seem to make themselves.

My love of painting is nourished by a lifelong engagement with art history and contemporary practice. Wherever I travel, I seek out museums, drawn to see as much art as I can. I am especially influenced by the legacy of automatism, carried from the Surrealists to the Abstract Expressionists in New York during the mid-1940s. That vibrant interchange of ideas continues to inspire and guide me as I work.