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ARTIST BIO

Chelsea Kinch is a self taught abstract painter based in Maui, Hawaii. She grew up in and out of RISD classrooms in her home state of Rhode Island after falling in love with oil painting at the age of ten. She did not pursue formal training in fine art however, opting instead to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Kinch kept her painting secret for years as she carried on with her innate connection to the medium. Her paintings explore themes of the human condition and ephemerality, especially as they relate to being a woman. For her, the process of painting is more than just that - it is an act of surrender, a catharsis, and a journey into herself. It is through painting that she lives. Kinch has been called a catalyst to her local arts community on Maui for her work to support emerging contemporary artists who operate outside of the tourist gaze. She opened and ran a gallery from 2021 to 2022 in the town of Pa’ia, Hawaii for this purpose. 

Kinch was selected for scholarship by the European Cultural Academy to study in Venice in the summer of 2022, where she took a deeper and pivotal look at what it means to be a contemporary artist. Kinch has representation with Cynthia Corbett Gallery in London, UK and has shown with the gallery at Art Miami, 2023, the LA Art show, 2024, and Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary, 2024. The artist was recently commissioned for sculpture by Redbull to design and make their trophies for the Women’s Big Wave Award, Redbull Magnitude. Her solo shows include Clean Sweep, 2020, Graceful Anger, 2021, and Moving In, 2022.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I make art to digest and make peace with the human experience. I use paint to explore profound emotions and my relationship to existing in a corporeal form. My work and process are inextricably linked to play and physicality – painting for me is like dancing and the more of my body that I can involve in the work, the more vital it feels. Over the past few years I have moved onto larger canvases to maximize this element of my practice. Painting teaches me everything I need – it humbles me, slows me down, excites me. Nature, place, and environment are huge influences on my work. I use my practice to fuse the internal and external landscapes that I feel torn between. They come together through color and gesture in a visual expression of the many facets of my experiences in this body, on this planet.

© Chelsea Kinch, 2023

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