BIO

Kelly Brumfield-Woods (b. 1966, Los Angeles) received an acceptance to Otis College of Art and Design in mid-1980s, the same time she was asked to be Studio Assistant for Mary Corse. She opted for the latter and quickly established a full time Studio Assistant business, working closely with artists such as Billy Al Bengston, Charles Christopher Hill, and Frank Lloyd. She concurrently developed and expanded her own artistic practice.   

Since 2009, Brumfield-Woods has exhibited widely in Los Angeles including solo exhibitions at TAJ Art Gallery and Saatchi Arts’ The Other Art Fair. Group exhibitions in Los Angeles include Over the Influence, Loft at Liz’s, Art Share LA, Gallery 825, and Red Pipe Gallery. Her work was included in the Southern California / Baja Biennial at the San Diego Art Institute in 2016. Brumfield-Woods and her work have been featured in several publications including LAWeekly, Peripheral Vision Press, Art and Cake, and FULL BLEDE.

Known for her hard-edge, geometric abstract paintings, Brumfield-Woods’ works explore visual perception, color theory, and pattern. Although formal aspects of the Light and Space movement are present, she eschews minimalism with the addition of glitter and soft textiles, such as fake fur. Viewers themselves activate the works, which shift in color, tone, and light as their eyes and body moves across and in front of the surface. Working on panel, canvas, and paper, she paints autonomous, color field paintings of dynamic shapes, often with complimentary colors. The color selections are painstakingly selected to induce an after-image, a hallucinatory effect causing the viewer to perceive a temporary glow in their vision.

STATEMENT

My current body of work is acrylic on canvas on panel. The paintings are hard-edge geometric abstractions with some formal elements of Light and Space and color theory. The paintings are strict in their forms, but playful in their materials. I’ve introduced a bit of naughtiness with bright color, glitter, and sometimes soft elements, such as tactile fake fur. The viewer can, with a glance, understand formally what the painting is about but with a slightly extended involvement, there is more to experience. If one moves around a work it shifts in color and the surface appears to move. When the viewer stares at a point on the painting for around 30 seconds and then looks immediately at a white wall, an apparition appears: an after-image glow. The work offers shifts in visual perception in both the direct looking and also in the looking away.