KELLY BREEZ

If Barbara Kruger and Pee-Wee Herman had had a kid – and honestly I wish they had – that kid would be me. My work chronicles life’s absurdities–particularly in its seedier elements. It’s about finding balance between the humor necessary to navigate a harsh world and the irreverence necessary to survive it. I work in painting, illustration, sculpture and installation, with an emphasis on mundane materials. The high gloss Bar Top resin that covers many of my pieces, for instance, is a direct nod to my greatest muse and inspiration: the smoky old treasure-filled dive bar, crowded with human and non-human relics. More recently, I’m creating a painterly effect in my MATCHBOOK series (a companion to my ongoing HOW-TO BOOK series) by working with a semi-gloss sealer, exposing the brush strokes.

The result is renderings of matchbook covers that feel stolen from some alternate universe, both alien and familiar. I’m forever engaged in observing stories that too often go unnoticed —and creating objects that prompt viewers to feel what may have been on the tip of their tongues, not quite named or understood.