Kelly Berg - Frank Pictures Gallery

Ignis, 18" x 24", acrylic and ink on clayboard, 2011

In our ongoing quest to introduce the most exciting, young, emerging talent, Frank Pictures Gallery is delighted to present Subterranean, the paintings of Kelly Berg on Saturday June 11th in the Project Room. Influenced by her childhood explorations of nature in her native Minnesotan wilderness as well as it’s interaction with the human and technological world, Berg won a National Scholastic Art Portfolio Award in 2004. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2008. At The Rhode Island School of Design Kelly focused on figurative and landscape drawing and painting. In 2007, Kelly apprenticed with world-renowned California mural artist John Pugh, who specializes in Trompe L’oeil techniques. She worked outdoors on his largest mural project ever completed which spanned 50 feet by 100 feet in Honolulu, Hawaii. Continuing her exploration of advanced painting techniques, Kelly received training in renaissance egg tempera painting and took a study trip abroad to Italy during her senior year. In 2008, Kelly had her first solo show of paintings, scratch boards, and ink drawings at the Hopkins Center for the Arts in Minnesota entitled, “Nature: An Uncommon View” which was a series of insect and human portraits set in various national park landscapes. After graduation from RISD in 2008, Kelly traveled to Greece and Egypt gaining inspiration for her next series of work combining figures, landscape and abstraction. She moved to Los Angeles in February 2009 where her work was first shown at Cannibal Flower, a bimonthly pop-up gallery, in March 2009. She assisted artist Timothy Williams and helped with the installation of exhibitions at his Black Cat Gallery in Culver City. Two of the group shows at the Black Cat Gallery included her paintings. Kelly has continued to show her work in various group shows in Los Angeles and Orange County galleries. She was also the featured artist at Cannibal Flower’s nine-year anniversary show. Kelly’s work was most recently shown in “Beyond Eden” at Barnsdall Art Park, “Wreck the Walls” at Subliminal Projects, “Abstract Intentions” at Rothick Art Haus, and in Gallery 825’s annual GEM auction.

Submerge, 18" x 24", acrylic and inbk on clayboard, 2011