WHO: Naples artist Kristy Gammill is known for creating atmospheric paintings. These often involve staining large, raw canvases with earthy colors as well as sandy, muted tones reminiscent of the beach near her home. She also paints muscular abstracts, botanicals and figurative portraits with limbs and faces partly hidden or portrayed up close—imagine mixing the midcentury heft of Helen Frankenthaler with the folded figures of Christina Quarles.
WHAT: Explore Gammill’s artistic process and spot captivating in-the-works and completed pieces. Discover Origin Point, which was installed at Artem, a residential building in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood; scroll on to find a large stained canvas commissioned by CID Design Group for OneEleven in Chicago. In years past, her work has also been licensed by Burton Snowboards, Hallmark and One Kings Lane.
WHY: She intentionally engages with other painters and travels to museums worldwide to see where contemporary art—particularly by women—is headed and to find her place in the conversation. As a result, her work is moodier and quieter, as she discovers a form of therapeutic catharsis by turning inward to work through some of her own history.
IN HER WORDS: “When I’m alone in my studio with music blaring and no other distractions, I’m able to tackle the turmoil in my head and leave it all on the canvas. It’s where I can commune with the artistic greats in my mind and try to offer up something of my own.”
