Still Lives:
Kristen Thiele

In Still Lives, Kristen Thiele’s paintings reflect on isolation, ambiguity, and the space between action and reaction. Her imagery derived from classic films of the 1930’s to the 1950’s resonate with what is fleeting, missing, and unattainable through their opulence and escapism. The repetition of crowds and close-ups in her paintings are indexes for the ignored places between the deliberate and the staged. Film stills captured in paint on canvas by Thiele opens a revolving door of contradictions in the ways we access images and media through technological anachronism.

Originally from Miami, Kristen Thiele studied fine arts at the University of Miami on a full tuition scholarship. In 1992, she moved to Chicago to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she studied painting, sound, and video, and graduated with a BFA in 1995. During her years in school and after, she sang and played bass in the band Motorhome. They released 2 CDs and 3 singles on New York labels Zero Hour and Dirt Records and played with bands like Everclear, Alanis Morissette, Missing Persons, Th’ Faith Healers, etc. After graduating from SAIC, Thiele apprenticed Chicago screen printer Steve Walters of Screwball Press and learned the art of silkscreen printing, primarily printing posters for local and national bands. During her time in Chicago, Thiele participated in numerous shows exhibiting her work, including 3 solo exhibitions at the David Leonardis Gallery. Upon her return to Miami, she became a member of the Oolite Arts on Lincoln Road in South Beach, where she held a studio until her recent move in 2010 to Bridge Red Studios in North Miami. Thiele’s posters were published in the definitive rock poster book “The Art of Modern Rock” and her paintings in “Miami Contemporary Artists.”