About

Bio

Kal Cloonan was born and raised in South Florida with a varying history of creative study including orchestral music, creative writing, film photography, mixed media, painting, installation and performance art, receiving a B.F.A. in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2013. Kal lived and worked in Los Angeles, CA for seven years after graduation, presenting in a myriad of group shows as an artist, curator and collaborator in a variety of alternative and established spaces. As a member of the Los Angeles Art Association for three years, Kal showed paintings, video installation and performance at Gallery 825 in West Hollywood, CA. In May 2019, Kal completed their first artist residency at Shoebox Projects in downtown Los Angeles, culminating three weeks of work in the space. Throughout 2020, Kal completed a year long daily project entitled “Being Human” documenting daily personal life through painting, writing, drawing and photography. Since August 2020, Kal has taken the studio on the road. Current location is in Ponca City, OK where since January 2021 Kal has completed over 100 paintings for two major series of 2-dimensional work “Oklahoma Squares” and “Oklahoma Paper”.

Artist Statement

I am a compilation of knowledge, experiences and beliefs being constantly broken up and rearranged throughout life’s unexpected turns. Everything that is now is what is past accumulated. A visual exploration of moments from my life, manifested through a visceral exploration of surface and material. The work explores the rhythm of my body moving in space, flailing in frustration, searching for meaning in past memories; information fragmented and compiled from the past to inform the present and fantasize of the future. The sensation of being in my body, of feeling the weight of existence on my chest. The beautiful chaos of it all: analyzed, deconstructed, reconsidered. A fascination with human inconsistencies and peripheral remnants of materials, marks and stains carrying bits of unspoken stories. Material has meaning. It is a constant discourse between happenstance and refinement. An intimate turmoil manifesting itself in many forms from painting to performance.

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