Opening Saturday, June 6 at Sara June

You are invited to Katelyn Alain: On The Verge Opening: Saturday, June 6 at 7pm at Sara June 618 Union Street,  Brooklyn, NY 11215 I am beyond excited to display my latest series of small paintings in a venue and space that perfectly aligns with the character and vibe of the work. Sara June is an amazing Brooklyn salon that  was created from the ground up by the very talented Sara Gilmore. This is a unique and beautifully designed space in Gowanus that is a natural environment for my portraits of women on the verge of transformation. Come out and support the people making good things happen in Brooklyn.  I hope to see you at 7pm on Saturday!  Katelyn Alain: On The Verge  will be on view June - July, 2015 Sara June hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11-6 618 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215

* My show Musing continues to be on view at Arcilesi Homberg Fine Art, 139 Eldridge St., (Lower East Side) New York, NY until June 12, 2015. Come by to see a larger selection of  recent paintings in this two person show. Gallery hours: Wedneday-Sunday 12-6pm. LINK to gallery

May 9- June 12 at Arcilesi Homberg Fine Art, New York, NY

Dormant Prophecies, oil on canvas, 24x18"

I am pleased to invite you to my first two-person exhibition in New York City. This exhibition will feature a varied selection of recent paintings from small studies to intimate self-portraits and portraits that inhabit dynamic memory-scapes.

Opening Reception:

Saturday, May 9, 6-9 PM

at

Arcilesi Homberg Fine Art

139 Eldridge St. (Lower East Side)

New York, NY 10002

Train directions: F,M,J,Z to Delancey/ Essex St. or B,D to Grand St.

Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 12pm - 6pm
On view: May 9- June 12, 2015

Gowanus Open Studios October 18, 19

 It's that time of year again! The one day a year I ignore my reclusive nature and open my studio to the crowds and curious. I look forward to welcoming you:

October 18 and 19 from 12-6.

Find me in Studio 22 at 98 9th Street or enter at 75A 10th Street, Brooklyn, NY 

MAP

 This event attracts the best visitors to my studio. Last year I met some of my very first collectors in person and was surrounded by so many amazing people that have encouraged and enabled me to make my work. Thank you all for your support!

 This year over 315 artists and organizations at 85 locations around Gowanus will be participating. So come see the latest art being made in this part of Brooklyn. Here's the full GOS participant map.

Walk, bike or take the F/G/R train to 9th Street and follow the balloons to 98 9th Street or to 75A 10th Street in the building next to Lowe's!

Come out, spread the word, and don't forget to take selfies and hashtag it. #GOS2014

Opening Thursday, June 5 at Arcilesi Homberg

Face Time: New Portraiture Now

Opens this Friday, November 8th

6-8:30pm

Ground Floor Gallery

343 5th Street

Brooklyn, NY (map)

I am pleased to be participating in this show at Ground Floor Gallery that opens on Friday. "Face Time: New Portraiture Now" is a mixed-media exploration of contemporary portraiture featuring Elizabeth Colomba, and artists Damali Abrams, Brendan Carroll, Alexis Duque, Lori Nelson, Tim Okamura, Iviva Olenick, Katelyn Alain and Barry Shepherd.

"Face Time: New Portraiture Now" will be on view from November 8 - December 8, 2013.

Gowanus Open Studios October 19, 20

Detail shot from the latest canvas.

It's once again time for Gowanus Open Studios where over 200 artists will be opening their doors to the public. I look forward to welcoming you to my studio.

When: October 19 and 20
Time: 12-6 PM
Where: 98 9th Street or enter at 75A 10th Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn. I am in Studio 22 .
MAP

By train: F/G to Smith/9th Street and cross the canal. Also, F or R train to 4th Ave./9th st. and head down the hill to 98 9th Street.

Some Thoughts On Painting Reality

I spend much of my time contemplating sight and the way my brain perceives the information before me. I think about how I can make painting a more accurate reflection of my experience in this world. I think about how we observe nature as outside of ourselves, but we are also nature. I think about the strangeness of life and the extreme beauty that surrounds us. I wonder about the world and most often wonder about how to make my work more true to life. And by that I don't mean more traditionally representational. I mean more accurate to the strangeness of my own experience.

My work has always been in some way representational. But most people have a hard time categorizing my paintings. Even I am not sure what category they should fit into. This, I think, is because I'm not focused on creating a specific type of art or in mimicking a specific style that already exists. I am instead focused on finding a better way to communicate my reality. My goal is not to replicate the world simply as the eye sees. While a worthy task for some, that has never been my aim. It is the brain that alters and informs the eye. And it is what the brain does with visual and other sensory information that is the most essential element of the reality that I document.

Our personal truth is rooted in our interpretation of things. In the passing of time, the brain distills and alters our understanding. It keeps the essential. It elevates the mundane. It also has a tendency to fail completely or remember falsely. What is it then that we are recording as painters if we want to record reality?  Is it not the brain's emotional response to the information that hits our retina? Painting is about what we take away from what we see. It is about what makes our understanding of the world truly our own. It is about finding and recording a deeper truth, and finding an alternate path to discovering and sharing our true selves. Abstraction and ambiguity is a very real part of sight and memory. Why should it not be recorded as such when we represent reality in two dimensions? What we see before us and what we take away are two different things. What is more real?

Reality is a fickle thing. Time moves relentlessly onward. As time passes, I find myself with ever more questions. Is it possible to use paint to find out more about how we see and remember? How do I translate the abstraction of the brain into color and form? What element of reality am I expressing when I paint intuitively? Can I interpret the way my brain distills fragmented thoughts?  Can it become a true documentation or a true embodiment of a persona through portraiture? How is time recorded in the mind through the act of seeing? Painting with these questions presents new challenges and new approaches to my process. And thus my studio work continues.

Passing

60x48"
oil on canvas

Studio Today

Passing

60x48 inches
oil on canvas

Single Fare 3

February 13 - February 22, 2013

This third annual exhibition invites artists to make work on a tiny, innocuous piece of plastic: the New York City MetroCard!

RH Gallery 

137 DUANE STREET NY NY 10013

Opening Reception:
Wednesday, February 13, 6-9pm

And so I let him out into the world.

oil on canvas
30x40 inches

Gowanus Open Studios

The 2012 Gowanus Open Studios will take place this Saturday and Sunday, October 13th and 14th, 12-6 PM. I will be in my studio all weekend. There will be lots of studios open in my building and nearby, so come on over to:

75A 10th Street
Studio 22
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Map!

Stop by and say hello!

Go! Brooklyn Open Studios

I will open my studio to the public this weekend as part of Go!

Enter at 75 10th Street (adjacent to Lowe's) or 98 9th Street. The doors will all be open so just come on in 11-7 PM. See you then!

During GO, Brooklyn-based artists open their studios to the community on September 8–9, 2012, from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. Community members registered as voters will visit studios and nominate artists for inclusion in a group exhibition to open at the Brooklyn Museum on Target First Saturday, December 1, 2012.
https://www.gobrooklynart.org/about 

And then it happened.

24x36" oil on linen, work in progress.

Modern In Denver Magazine: Summer 2012

See the painting, Girl Running, in a collector's stunning residence in the Summer 2012 issue of Modern In Denver Magazine:

Words: Eleanor Perry-Smith | Image: Daniel O’Connor

"...From this angle we get glimpses of an abstract black and white Robert Motherwell signed limited edition print and a Katelyn Alain abstract."

Studio Visit Magazine: Volume 18

Find my work on page 4 of the latest publication of Studio Visit Magazine.

"Studio Visit is a series of juried artist books produced by the publishers of New American Paintings. Each high quality volume of Studio Visit features approximately 150 artists, who have been selected by professional curators.

Studio Visit will be received by more than two thousand galleries, museum curators, and art aficionados throughout the country."

Juror: Trevor Richardson, Director of Herter Gallery

Brain, Ideas, Art

Learning about the way the brain interprets and stores information helps me to think about the way I approach my painting process.

When I was first starting out as a painter, I was greatly influenced by the book Art and Illusion by Ernst Gombrich. His writing style seemed hopelessly dry and outdated, yet his words spoke to me as directly relevant to what I was trying to accomplish in the studio. He delved into the way the mind and eye work together to 'see' and understand the world. His perspective was scientific and art historical and there were nice diagrams to illustrate his points. I can see this book on my shelf right now with it's folded corners, and colorful scraps of paper sticking out of it's pages- shortcuts to the many highlighted and underlined passages I've come back to over the years.

I am now reading two more recent books by Eric R. Kandel, a nobel prize winner for his research in brain science. Kandel, much to my surprise, seems to be picking up where Gombrich left off and reinvigorating an interest in what he has termed the 'science of mind.' I am so enthralled with the way brain science affects painting and art that I can't wait to see how his insights will alter the way I consider my own process. I have just finished his very scientifically-focused book In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind (link). And now I am reading the slightly more apropos book The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand The Unconscious in Art, Mind and Brain. (link) I can't wait to finish this book! As I start a new body of work based on portraying memory, I have so much fodder for future ideas.

Record of Memory

On Memory

It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. These are often as highly structured and selective as myths. Images and symbolic constructs of the past are imprinted, almost in the manner of genetic information, on our sensibility. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past.
---George Steiner, In Bluebeard's Castle (1971)