Tricia McKellar

Tricia McKellar is an multidisciplinary artist in Raleigh, North Carolina working in video, assemblage, & more. Her current work is focused on video & installations.

Artist’s Statement

My work is a series of questions and a reflection on opposites. How do the in-between moments multiply into the whole of our lives? How do our dreams bleed into our days? How does the impermanence of everything build our foundations? 

I video a lot of water. I spend many hours watching river waters flow and ocean waves. The water is the same and not the same from one moment to the next. The seemingly endless rhythm feels incomprehensible yet is comprised of many small, fleeting splashes. How do I live in the moment and enjoy the rushing water while some other part of my brain measures my life and organizes a spreadsheet of worries?

In my photography and video, I use blur and out of focus elements to introduce ambiguity. Blurry images might be a half seen dream, or a view through a rainy window, or a teeny tiny tickle of a memory from the corner of your mind. I invite the viewer to question the work and supply some of the story. 

Color is a fickle friend. Many of my pieces are black and white. Monochrome images provide abstraction and dream-like allusions. Natural but not natural. Occasionally the color is too perfect to ignore and my work is not black and white.

I often use mirrors, reflections, and symmetry. My use of mirrors alludes to infinity and the seemingly endless rhythm of natural life. For me, mirrors suggest the dream world, parallel worlds, worlds just outside of our own. I prefer symmetry to be a bit unsymmetrical; the reflection line may be centered or off center. I like the tension of symmetry and dissymmetry.

Once my art is released, it is a dialog with the viewer. And it’s also often an ongoing conversation in my head.

Select Exhibitions

2023:

Instant Gratification, Golden Belt, Durham, NC. Curated by Ray Pfeiffer.

Materia Prima, Arts Southeast + Sulfur Studios, Savannah, GA. Juried by Jennifer Moss.

Kitchen Sink, Delurk Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC. Juried.

Pop-Up Photography Exhibition, Bonded Llama Art Studios, Raleigh, NC.

2017:
Landscape, Grand and Personal, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC. Juried by Eliot Dudik.
Scope: The Southern Landscape, Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh, NC. Second Place.

2016:
In a Moment, Click! Photography Festival Exhibition, RTP, NC. Juried by Chris Ogden. Second Place.
Scope: The Southern Landscape, Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh, NC. Honorable Mention.

2015:
The Image Exhibition, Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh, NC
Darkroom, Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh, NC
N.E.W., Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh, NC
Crossroads, Litmus Gallery, Raleigh, NC

2014:
Science, Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh, NC

2011: 
Lobby, Artspace, Raleigh, NC. Solo Exhibition.

2008:
Microcosm, Macrocosm, Block Gallery, Raleigh, NC

2007:
A Natural Order: Art Exploring Organic and Artifice, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY. Solo Exhibition.

2006:
Upfront Gallery, Artspace, Raleigh, NC. Solo Exhibition.
Semans Gallery, Durham Arts Council, Durham, NC. Solo Exhibition.
Jordan Hall Arts Center, Cary, NC. Solo Exhibition.
Winter Show, Green Hill Center for NC Art, Greensboro, NC 
Visual Voice, Cintas Center, Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH 
Form Not Function, Carnegie Art Center, New Albany, IN 

2005:
Art Quilts: Contemporary Traditions, Page Walker, Cary NC 
Art Quilts, Clayton Visual Arts, Clayton, NC SAQA Group Show, Side Street Gallery, Pittsboro, NC