About the Artist
Kelly Zeng, ISEA
Artist Statement
I paint the light that refuses to die.
My landscapes imagine the emotional climate of home: spacious, atmospheric worlds where color becomes breath and the environment itself feels protective. My figures, rendered in red and black, reveal the body that carried that light through every storm — vulnerable, fierce, and honest. My abstractions trace the internal rhythm, the pulse that persisted even when everything else fractured.
What ties them together is a language of fluidity and emergence: soft edges, layered translucency, forms that appear and dissolve like memory. I paint the moment when something breaks open inside you — not dramatic, but quietly undeniable.
I paint to understand how light survives inside darkness, and how a life reshapes itself after the storm. My hope is that the work offers a moment of recognition — a sense of warmth, renewal, or quiet defiance that feels familiar to anyone who has ever carried their own ember forward.
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Education & Training
Independent Study in Watercolor and Mixed Media Mentorship with watercolor master Ingrid Albrecht, 2017–present
Supplemental Workshops (Selected) Thomas Schaller, Keiko Tanabe, Pasqualino Fracasso, Alvaro Castagnet, Joan Fullerton, Jean Pederson
Awards & Recognition
- Signature Member, International Society of Experimental Artists (ISEA), 2025
- Merit Award, International Society of Experimental Artists Annual Juried Exhibition, 2025
- Honorable Mention, Chicago Area Visual Artists Annual Member Show, 2024
- Novice Award, Illinois Watercolor Society Annual Member Show, 2021
Press and Features
- Featured Artist - Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists (CAVA), September 2026. Spotlight on my creative practices and evolution. Originally published on the CAVA artist website. Link may expire due to rotating archives.
Select Shows & Exhibitions
2026
- Chicago Area Visual Artists Annual Member Show, Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL
- Watercolor 2026 Juried Exhibition, Dellora A. Norris Cultural Arts Center, St. Charles, IL
- 6th Annual Water! Group Exhibition, Northshore Art League, Winnetka, IL
- 2nd Annual Wicker Park Fine Art Fair
2025
- Tiny Works, Fulton Street Collective, Chicago, IL
- ISEA 34th Annual “Innovations” Open Juried Exhibition, Ormond Memorial Art Museum, Ormond Beach, FL
2024
- ISEA 6th Annual “Utterly Profound” Online Juried Exhibition
- Chicago Area Visual Artists Annual Member Show, Northshore Art League, Winnetka, IL
2023
- ISEA 5th Annual “Utterly Profound” Online Juried Exhibition
- Creative Endeavors Group Show, Ingrid’s Gallery, Chicago, IL
2022
- Illinois Watercolor Society 38th National Show, The Next Picture Gallery, IL
- Every Woman in Me Portrait Show, Prairie Public Library, Chicago, IL
2021
- Illinois Watercolor Society Annual Member Show, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
Artistic Practice
Primary medium: watercolor Additional processes: gelli printing, monotype, suminagashi, experimental printing, collage, and mixed‑media layering
Focus: translating emotional and sensory experiences—music, poetry, landscape, memory—into expressive visual form through gesture, rhythm, and atmospheric layering.
Collections
Private collections in Chicago and across the United States
