Titi Kerndt

Viewing Colombian-born Titi Kerndt’s work is like touring the natural world, not so much through time and space as through imagination and color. What appear at first glance to be broadly painted, abstract canvases are revealed, on continued viewing, to be evocative, nuanced visions of land, sea, and sky, rewarding the viewer with rich textures and hidden treasures.

The prolific young artist’s work includes multiple artworks and even several series inspired by different aspects of nature, some pieces meant to be presented solo, others grouped. Kerndt layers acrylic paint, pulling it across the canvas in dramatic brushstrokes, teasing it into frothy bubbles or rigid disks, tracing it with tiny figures, embedding it with sand, pieces of wood, or texted paper.

The themes and elements in Kerndt’s paintings mirror the planet’s diversity.  The “Crossings” series is about connecting places, as we do when traveling or exploring. Lines, circles and dots circumnavigate these canvases, meeting, parting, creating their own imprint on the landscape.  Other works evoke the moods and colors of seasons, drenching us in deep golds and purples or sending us soaring into an orange-infused sunset.

Kerndt’s ocean-inspired paintings explore a rich world of blues, greens and aquas infused with light, inhabited by exotic sea creatures. Gestured brushstrokes, often punctuated with flashes of luminous gold and silver, balance these lush fields of color.   Ghostly jellyfish and seahorses float by in some paintings while vivid coral fish dart about in others.  Even sea grapes inspire the artist, who depicts them with a lyrical choreography of lines and circles.

Throughout these explorations, Kerndt’s paintings encompass, like nature – her beloved muse – the broad spectrum of colors, textures, and elements that harmonize in the glorious dance of life.  Whether on land or on sea, Kerndt’s work reveals the exuberant topography of the artist’s mind and spirit.

–Marlene Sholud