This focused presentation brings together paintings by New York–based artists Annie Bielski and Kathryn Kerr, placing two distinct approaches to abstraction in close conversation. While Kerr’s work unfolds through a measured interplay of intuition and structure built through layering, Bielski’s paintings emerge from an embodied engagement with the surface, where gesture and improvisation drive the image forward. Seen together, their works open a conversation around tempo, touch, and decision-making in contemporary painting, underscoring abstraction’s continued vitality.
Annie Bielski received a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her MFA from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Bielski has taught at The University of New Mexico, SUNY Buffalo, and The State University of New York at Albany, and currently lives and works in Upstate New York. Exhibitions include RAW FOOTAGE, SEPTEMBER (Kinderhook, NY) Agita, Rachel Uffner Gallery (New York, NY); Strong Winds May Exist, SEPTEMBER (Hudson, NY); Loveland, SEPTEMBER (Hudson, NY); NADA (New York, NY); Bluets, Burning in Water (New York, NY); The Hardest Part is Just Gettin’ Here, Paris London Hong Kong (Chicago, IL); only to find, High Tide (Philadelphia, PA); a rose is a rose is a cave, Motel (Brooklyn, NY); Alongside:: D,A,K,A, Lodos, (Mexico City, Mexico); PICA’S TBA:16 with Dan Bunny/Bunnybrains, The Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (Portland, OR); Strutting, Fretting, UB Art Galleries at The University of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY); among others. Bielski has performed at SEPTEMBER, The Museum of Modern Art, Coustof Waxman, Allen & Eldridge, Rachel Uffner Gallery, CANADA, and elsewhere. She was the Artist in Residence at Basilica Back Gallery in 2018, and participated in 1-844-NOT-Z00M ARCHIVES, Vol. 2, at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2020. She has collaborated with the University at Buffalo and FORT MAKERS to create limited edition objects and prints and has released three zines independently. Bielski has collaborated with musician Jenny Hval, performed across the US and Europe, and contributed album art and music video visuals to Hval’s 2022 album, Classic Objects. She has interviewed numerous artists for The Creative Independent and is a contributor to the monograph Molly Zuckerman-Hartung: Comic Relief. Bielski’s work, performances, and writing have been covered by Art News, Hyperallergic, MTV, The New York Times, among others.
Kathryn Kerr is a New York–based artist, born in Los Angeles and raised in New Jersey. She received her M.F.A. from Yale in 2018 and her B.F.A. from The Cooper Union in 2007. Her paintings draw on divergent imagery, combining history, material culture, and personal experience to evoke longing and a sense of disembodied connection. Through archaeological, anecdotal, and observational references, she creates unplaceable landscapes that unsettle while inviting reorientation, employing abstraction and color to subvert expectations and disrupt fixed meaning. Kerr’s work has been exhibited at White Columns, Magenta Plains, James Cope Gallery, Chapter Gallery, Project Native Informant, and Lomex, among others. She is represented by James Cope, Dallas.
