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Keltie Ferris Has a Show
When does a painting stop being a private object and start becoming a public work? In this film, artist Keltie Ferris prepares for his show KF + CM 4EVER (2010) by crating a new series of paintings in his Bushwick studio, shipping the work across town in a van, and installing the exhibition at Horton Gallery in Chelsea—all in the same day.
The artist and a team of art handlers shadowbox a “tacky” painting and roll a second painting that’s too large to fit through the studio door. As the paintings are moved, Ferris’s studio transforms from a vibrant space filled with energetic abstract paintings—all titled with symbols, such as the works ((!!!!!)) (2010) and !@#$%^&*() (2010)—to an empty room absent of color. The process is reversed at the gallery as the works are uncrated and where dealer Sean Horton personally hangs each painting, consults with the artist on placement, and talks with prospective collectors.
More information and creditsCredits
Art21 New York Close Up Created & Produced by: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Editor: Mary Ann Toman. Cinematography: Andrew David Watson. Sound: Nick Ravich. Associate Producer: Ian Forster. Production Assistant: Paulina V. Ahlstrom, Don Edler & Maren Miller. Design: Open. Artwork: Keltie Ferris. Thanks: Forrest Comay, Joel & Zoë Dictrow, James Giddings, Sean Horton, Horton Gallery, Chad Jones, Maxine Presto & Renwick Fine Arts. An Art21 Workshop Production. © Art21, Inc. 2011. All rights reserved.
Closed captionsAvailable in English, German, Romanian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian
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Keltie Ferris was born in 1977 in Lexington, Kentucky, and lives and works in New York. Making references to Impressionism and abstract painting as well as Pop art and graffiti, his large-scale paintings are staunchly analog, despite the ease with which they can be read digitally. Ferris’s investigations into the relationship between his body and the canvas have resulted in signature body prints and emphasize the artist’s fixation with abstraction. His process for these works—layering images created by pressing his oil-covered body against the canvas surface, and then brushing or spraying pigment onto it—is one of simultaneous concealing and exposing.
Artist at Work
