Keira Kotler, Between the Sea & Sky 1, 2017, pigment print on aluminum with acrylic front mount, 30 x 30 inches
Keira Kotler
Spectrum
April 2 to May 31, 2025
Artist Reception
4pm to 6pm
Saturday, April 5
NANCY TOOMEY FINE ART
1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco
Nancy Toomey Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Keira Kotler titled Spectrum on view from April 2 to May 31, 2025. The gallery is located inside San Francisco’s Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 12pm to 4pm, and by appointment–please contact nancy@nancytoomeyfineart.com or 415-307-9038.
The public is invited to meet artist Keira Kotler at the gallery on Saturday, April 5, from 4pm to 6pm.
Keira Kotler, Between the Sea & Sky 22, 2021, 4 pigment prints on aluminum with acrylic front mount, 50 x 50 inches
If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind.
The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.
-Chuang Tzu
Keira Kotler, Between the Sea & Sky 21, 2019, pigment print on aluminum with acrylic front mount, 24 x 24 inches
Keira Kotler’s exhibition Spectrum explores visual and sensory perception and the possibilities that occur when one attends to the present moment. Using luminosity and the resonance of color, Kotler creates reductive photoworks that engage the viewer through subtle value shifts, chromatic complexity and, compositional movement.
Stemming from a long-standing fascination with the phenomena of light and color, and rooted in color theory and psychology, Kotler’s expansive works amplify gesture and light to create nuanced perceptual experiences–ultimately serving as spaces for reflection, and invitations for viewers to explore their own internal sensations and associations.
Keira Kotler, Between the Sea & Sky 10, 2021, 9 pigment prints on aluminum with acrylic front mount, 94 x 94 inches
In Keira Kotler’s work, the transition from one color to another functions as a study of optics and motion. She deliberately creates opportunities for viewers to have psychological, emotional, and physiological experiences.
In the words of art critic Peter Frank, “In terms of both procedure and effect, Kotler is very much a light and space artist, but like other painters who seek to capture–or more accurately, embody–the ephemerality of ambient light, she knows that the pursuit is fraught with ambiguity and slippage, and the art lies in that very imprecision.”
Keira Kotler, Radiance 4, 2015, pigment print on aluminum with acrylic front mount, 15 x 20 inches
“Drawn to the drama of natural light, I use my camera to capture moments of transition and change in my surroundings,” says Kotler. “Combining abstract imagery with reflective and translucent materials, I assemble both single and multi-panel, gridded arrangements that combine radiant hues with serial repetition. Often referred to as moving meditations, the final surfaces form dynamic, soft-edge patterns, and shift with changing vantage points, lighting conditions and architectural elements.”
Keira Kotler
Born in Boston, Keira Kotler received a BA from Columbia University and MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. Kotler’s work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Di Rosa Preserve, Berkeley Art Center, and the Palm Desert Museum. Represented by galleries across the United States and collected internationally, her art explores luminosity and the resonance of color through reductive paintings, photoworks, videos, and monoprints.
Spectrum is Keira Kotler’s first solo exhibition at Nancy Toomey Fine Art.
