KELTIE FERRIS: C/O/N/T/A/C/T/T\R\A\C\I\N\G
June 29 – July 3, 2020

“In a little over a decade, Ferris has opened up many possibilities for further exploration, starting with the tools in her studio. She has mastered a variety of instruments, methods, and materials.  She draws in paint but breaks with the old master tradition of relying solely on a brush, employing palette knives as well as a spray gun, for which she mixes her own color.  She also makes prints by pressing her body against a sheet of paper. Her materials include pastel, graphite, vegetable oil, and pigment, along with her own concoctions of paint, which run the gamut from colored mists to spray-painted graphite lines to cement-like slabs[…] As she moves through different bodies of work, it is hard not to recognize her openness to experiment. She is the rare artist whose work is marked by restlessness and a clear desire to expand her possibilities.”
- John Yau, from the forthcoming publication Keltie Ferris: A Decade

NEW YORK, June 28, 2020 - Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to present C/O/N/T/A/C/T/T\R\A\C\I\N\G a body of new work by Keltie Ferris created from March to May of this year. Working within the confines of the stay-at-home order in New York State since March, Ferris embarks on a new series of works on paper employing the medium of watercolor and a blend of techniques ranging from frottage to Automatic drawing.   

Though primarily known for her large-scale abstract canvases, works on paper have become an increasingly important part of Ferris’s practice beginning in 2013 with the Body Print series.  Conceptualized during residency in a similarly disruptive time period, Ferris used her body like a brush, pressing it against the paper.  Formally a departure from her abstract canvases, the Body Prints allowed Ferris to simultaneously expand her vocabulary of mark-making and co-opt a print-making technique in creating unique works on paper.

The new Quarantine series is similarly born out of an errant time-period.  Incorporating watercolor for the first time, Ferris begins by covering a single sheet of paper in a wash of color.  She then presses the colored sheet of paper face-to-face with a second sheet, and instinctively draws with her hands and fingers on the back of the first sheet which transfers over.  The resulting gestural compositions display a strong formal link to the curvilinear and geometric forms of Ferris’s works on canvas while also borrowing techniques of print-making, a hybrid of frottage and monotype, in making these unique paintings on paper.

About Keltie Ferris 
Keltie Ferris is known for her mostly large-scale canvases covered with layers of spray paint and hand-painted geometric fields.  Characterized by a continuously expanding investigation into painting, her practice considers a multi-planar site for constructed light and shifting space. In her ongoing series of Body Prints, Ferris uses her own body like a brush, covering it with natural oils and pigments and pressing it against a canvas, to literalize the relationship of an artist’s identity to the work that he or she produces. 
 
Keltie Ferris was born in Kentucky in 1977 and currently lives and works in Woodstock, New York. She graduated with a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2006. Recent solo exhibitions include *O*P*E*N* at the Speed Museum, Louisville, KY (2018), (F(U(T()U)R)E) at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York (2018), M\A\R\C\H at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York (2017), Body Prints and Paintings at the University Art Museum at SUNY Albany, New York (2016); Paintings and Body Prints at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York (2015); Keltie Ferris: Doomsday Boogie at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2014); and Man Eaters at the Kemper Museum, Kansas City (2009-10). Her works have been included in group exhibitions at institutions, including Asheville Art Museum, North Carolina (2020); Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art of Jacksonville, Florida (2016); Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, Texas (2014); The Academy of Arts and Letters, New York (2014); Brooklyn Museum, New York (2012); the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indiana (2010); and The Kitchen, New York (2009).

About Mitchell-Innes & Nash
Founded by Lucy Mitchell-Innes and David Nash, who previously headed the worldwide Contemporary and Impressionist & Modern Art divisions of Sotheby’s, Mitchell-Innes & Nash places exemplary contemporary artists within a historical context, revealing a continuity of ideas and aesthetic virtuosity from the Modern era through the present day. Lucy Mitchell-Innes is also a member of the selection committee of Art Basel and a former president of the Art Dealers Association of America. 

Mitchell-Innes & Nash’s renowned exhibition program fosters excellence within artistic practice, while forging an informed dialogue between emerging and established internationally recognized artists. From acclaimed surveys of 20th century masters, such as Jean Arp, Anthony Caro, Jay DeFeo, Willem de Kooning, Leon Kossoff, Kenneth Noland, Roy Lichtenstein, and Nicolas de Stael, to solo exhibitions of Sarah Braman, Keltie Ferris, Daniel Lefcourt, Pope.L, Martha Rosler, and Jessica Stockholder, Mitchell-Innes & Nash has proven expertise in both advancing the careers of emerging artists and maintaining the superior standard set by established artists.

Caption: KELTIE FERRIS, Quarantine #7, 2020

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