Kelly Berg: New Volcanic Works
February 1, 2025 - March 15, 2025
Opening Reception: February 1, 4-6pm
Craig Krull Gallery is pleased to present New Volcanic Works, a selection of recent paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Kelly Berg. The exhibition will be on view in the gallery office from February 1 to March 15, with an opening reception on February 1 from 4 to 6pm. This show celebrates the opening of Berg’s most comprehensive solo museum exhibition to date, Illuminated Earth, on view at the Bakersfield Museum of Art from January 30 - May 3, 2025.
This group of paintings, which features volcanoes around the world, presents these striking sites of geologic convergence as studies of time and impermanence. From Vesuvius to the volcanoes on Hawai’i, Berg traverses, records, and then recreates these primordial sites in an array of materials, including acrylic, ink, pumice, and mirror shards. In her paintings, the innermost material of the earth bursts out; conglomerated acrylic goes beyond impasto to form craggy edges that contain eruptions and fractures, simultaneously science projects and shrines. Through the personal observation and creative transmutation of these sublime moments, Berg invites us to consider our precarious positions at the edge—and to create, even in the event of destruction.