Kiki Gaffney
Artwork coming soon. Please contact the gallery for a list of available works.
About Kiki Gaffney
…“I would just get lost in these drawings,” says Gaffney, “And it really gave me a peace—like a peace of mind—that I don’t have in my outside life.”
Nature continues to be her muse. “Nature is really what gives me all of my ideas and my inspiration,” she says, including the images that were on display at the Pentimenti show this past winter. “All of our constructed patterns that we use, whether it’s maps or wallpaper ... all of that figuration comes from the natural world in some way. And so for me, that sort of layering of natural imagery, constructed imagery, patterning, layering—that’s where it all comes from.” When the pandemic hit, and Gaffney was in her studio full time, she found herself at a loss for new ideas and felt as though she was forcing herself to do something that wasn’t going to come if she continued to grasp at it. So she took off into the Wissahickon woods.
“I would just spend hours in there, go for my runs and my walks, and that’s when I started really noticing nature in a different way ... really noticing, noticing the transformational shifts,” Gaffney says. “I watched winter turn into spring, and the growth, and how barren fills with life and light. All of that shifted my thinking, and, in essence, shifted the way I looked at my work.”
- An excerpt from Root Quarterly, by Heather Shayne Blakeslee. May 5, 2023
Selected Exhibitions
2025
BOTANICAL Juried Exhibition, Manifest Research Gallery and Drawing Center, Cincinnati, OH
2024
Symphonic Worlds, Scheetz Gallery, Penn State Altoona, Altoona, PA
KinoSaito Annual: Community Art Benefit, Verplank, NY
National Juried Exhibition, Harper College, Palatine, IL
Buy What you Love, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, New York, NY
Women in the City of Brotherly Love, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2023
Drawn from Nature, Cope House, Awbury Arboretum, Philadelphia, PA
Nexus, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Wintertide, Modern West Fine Art, Salt Lake City, UT
Art Market San Francisco, K. Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
LOAM, Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE
Reaching for the Sky - Trees in the Work of Jimmie Jones and Other Artists, Near and Far, Southern Utah Museum of Art, Cedar City, UT
Out There, Modern West, Salt Lake City, UT
2022
Interwoven, Modern West Fine Art, Salt Lake City, UT
The Impossible Exhibition, curated by Tom Brummett, The Power Station, Villanova, PA
2021
Earth, Modern West, Salt Lake City, UT
Visions of the New Terrain, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2020
Blue, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Right Here, Right Now, Modern West, Salt Lake City, UT & Southern Utah Museum of Art, Cedar City, UT
Interpreted Landscapes, Modern West, Salt Lake City, UT
2019
Abington Art Center Spring Solo Exhibition Series, Abington, PA
Group Exhibition, BDDW Annex Gallery, New York City, NY
The Woodmere Annual 78th Juried Exhibition; juror Eileen Neff, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
(Insert Name Here), Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Paper & Thread, Modern West Fine Art, Salt Lake City, UT
New West, Modern West Fine Art, Salt Lake City, UT
Selected Collections
Microsoft
Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Sonoma State University
Denver Botanic Gardens
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Selected Lectures & Residencies
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Visiting Artist Program Lecture Series, Fall 2024
Land Line Artist Residency, Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver, CO, 2023
Montello Foundation Artist in Residence, Montello, NV, September 2023
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA (2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010)