Angela Kallus

“I make the things I make because I want beauty and order and agency and perfection and complexity, amid chaos. I make art that looks like something that it isn’t.”

Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Angela Kallus received her BFA in fine arts in 1998 from University of Texas, Arlington, and her MFA in fine arts in 2003 from University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she worked with acclaimed art critic Dave Hickey. She has exhibited throughout the U.S., including solo exhibitions at the Peter Mendenhall Gallery in Los Angeles and the Marty Walker Gallery in Dallas. Her many group exhibitions include the Las Vegas Art Museum and Circuit 12 Contemporary in Dallas. Ms. Kallus was a finalist for the Hunting Art Prize in 2013 and 2014, and is again in 2016. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

Kallus' acrylic relief paintings, with their delicate and purposeful formations, are not what they appear to be. At first glance, her carefully obsessive placement of "roses" creates the feeling of an overly ambitious wedding cake. Indeed, to make her paintings, she begins with cake decorator's tools, which she fills with very thick, transparent paint in order to make thousands of rosettes of varying sizes. But the blooms are neither roses nor frosting, nor anything but paint, according to Kallus, who insists, "You see what you want to see."

Residency: Rose Sculpture Paintings

During her residency, Ms. Kallus plans to complete one large and one smaller painting. She will make successively smaller rosettes each day, allow them to dry and shrink on shelves, and then position them on a canvas‐wrapped panel. Each painting will be entirely constructed by Kallus, who makes the panels and cleats, stretches and prepares the canvases.