Marta Hewett Gallery is pleased to announce The Nature of Things a solo exhibition of new paintings by Kim Krause. The exhibition will be on view from October 6th through December 2nd, 2017. The gallery will host an opening reception on Friday, October 6th from 6-8 pm. This event is free and open to the public.

More than 2,000 years ago Lucretius, the Roman poet and philosopher, wrote an epic didactic poem, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), intending to explain the real world and the primary principles of Epicurean philosophy. Using this extraordinary poem as a foundation, Krause began wondering about the “nature of things” in his own life and how personal experiences might be expressed universally in new forms through painting, specifically, still life painting. Was there any room for this tired genre in the 21st century? The artist found himself pondering the later stages in life and ideas revolving around uncertainty, shifts and swerves in our perceptions, and the simultaneity of grace and inevitability. These paintings are a result of personal explorations and processes, thoughts about the everyday, what is on the schedule for tomorrow, and in so being, a reflection on the nature of things.

Contemporary artists continue to reinvent the still life, a genre that is more readily associated with the sixteenth and seventeenth-century Old Masters than with art created today. What does it mean for a work to be a still life, a study of nature morte? (literally translated from the French: “dead nature”) Krause pursues the question exploring several classical categories of the still-life tradition including Flora, Food, Home, and Death in a new way. The impact of the memento mori, a reminder of death, change, and the passing of time―has been reintroduced in contemporary painting and can be found in Krause’s arrangements of objects that are charged with meaning. Known for his delicately veiled patterns, overlays of bold color and sweeping movement, Krause’s recent painting look to the past, mirror the present and elude to the mystery of what is to come.

Krause’s latest series of paintings, The Nature of Things, are inspired by the artists’ travels, love of classical literature and contemporary events. Kim Krause is an artist and educator whose paintings have been included in one hundred and thirty exhibitions including fourteen solo exhibitions.

Kim Krause is a Cincinnati native whose paintings have been included in over 130 exhibitions both nationally and internationally, including 15 solo exhibitions. The artist’s work has been purchased for numerous public, private and corporate collections including Atlantic Richfield, Cincinnati Art Museum, The Evansville Museum of Art, Chase Manhattan Bank, Macy’s National Headquarters, Fidelity Investments, The Procter and Gamble Company, PNC Bank, Safeco Insurance, Scripps Howard Corporation, Baukunst Galerie Ring Project, Cologne, Germany; and the Federal Reserve Bank, among others.

Krause has been artist-in-residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida; Rathausgalerie, Munich, Germany; The Cooper Union, New York; the Chateau, Rochefort-en-Terre, France; Spiro Arts, Park City, Utah, and The Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico.

Krause was co-founder of Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the Over-the-Rhine Design Studies Project. He was instrumental in having Over-the-Rhine declared a National Historic Neighborhood and founded Krause/Swaney Associates, an early pioneer in the redevelopment of Over-the-Rhine.

Krause attended the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning; Birkbeck College, University of London, England; earning his BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati and his MFA from The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, New York. He is professor of Art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati where he is Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean.