Artist BIO
Tara Kelley-Cruz was born in Amarillo, Texas and currently lives and works in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Brigham Young University. She has gone on to continue her education in painting, studying under artists such as Krista Harris, Nicholas Wilton and Bibby Gignilliat.
Among many art-historical influences such as Diebenkorn, Basquiat, Thiebaud and Frankenthaler, Kelley-Cruz is inspired by the large-scale installations of artist Ann Hamilton, the compositions of Robert Szot, and the color palettes and treatment of paint utilized by Michael Hedges.
A rich, textured surface is built in Tara’s work through layering. Fragments of language and imagery often surface and recede within the layers, suggesting narratives that remain open rather than fixed.Tara is drawn to the tension between concealment and revelation, using both saturated contrasts and restrained palettes to explore how we perceive presence and absence. For her, memory is layered and unstable. Her paintings reflect this quality by inviting the viewer into a slow unfolding of meaning. Each work is a culmination of lost and found moments, where the final composition holds the weight and history of the intuitive choices that brought it into being.
Kelley-Cruz has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions. Some notable exhibitions have been at G44 Gallery in Colorado Springs, D’art Gallery in Denver, and the Arvada Center in Denver. Her work is part of private collections across the United States and in the UK.
For more detailed information about Tara’s past exhibits, download her CV.
ARTIST TALK
In The Studio
All work © Tara Kelley-Cruz 2019