Kelly Dunagan

Artist Bio:
Kelly Dunagan is a painter and photographer originally from St. Louis, Missouri. She received her B.A. in studio art from Stanford University in 2004. She has exhibited in the United States, Ireland, and England, and was a member of Magdalen Road Studios in Oxford, UK, from 2011-2013. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband, two children, and a gecko named Beans.

Artist Statement:
My work explores several themes, which are connected by an interest in elevating and transcending the mundane. As a parent of young children, I am particularly interested in domestic scenes, and investigating the duality of home as both a haven and a prison (a duality that was emphasized during the social isolation of the COVID pandemic). I have made a study of the constantly shifting clutter that fills interior spaces during this stage of early parenthood, composing my interiors like stage sets to imbue everyday objects with significance. I am also interested in duality in portraiture. I paint my subjects in various disguises, exploring the ways in which a portrait of a masked person can still reveal something profound about that individual, and at the same time, how a small change in costume can allow us to inhabit and experience different identities. Although my paintings are made from scenes of daily life, I use classical composition to bring to them a weightiness and theatricality that (I hope) makes the viewer stop and reconsider objects and places that might otherwise have remained overlooked.