Michele Kishita
Biography
Michele Kishita is a Philadelphia artist who captures the memory and spirit of the landscape using hard edge abstraction and colors from nature that are not typically considered “natural.” She reimagines terrain that no longer exists but is inherently contained in each panel while expressing the visual contrast and harmony where humans and nature intersect. Kishita’s paintings are in the collections of Toyota, Capital One, and Kaiser Permanente, and she has participated in residencies in New Mexico, Russia, and Iceland. Important exhibitions include the Sharjah Art Museum, UAE and the Museum of Non-Conformist Art, Russia. Kishita received her BFA and MFA from the University of the Arts.
Artist Statement
Exploring ideas of transience, interconnection, transformation, and beauty, I give voice to the tales that are silently embedded in the wood grain of my painting surfaces. Through the rhythmic undulations that map a tree’s annual growth and water intake, I imagine a place, an atmosphere, or a feeling that articulates the visual contrast and harmony where nature and mankind intersect. Formally drawing from the graphic stylizations and compressed spaces of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, I use hard edge abstraction and colors from nature, that are not typically considered “natural,” to capture the memory and spirit of the landscape.
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