Llamas’ paintings are beautiful minimalistic realism. She follows a linear creative process in the development of each idea, often culminating in witty unrelated objects filling the picture plane. The paintings become visual conundrums to be solved by the viewer.
~ Susan Shockley, Museum Curator, Parthenon, Nashville, TN
VISUAL ARTIST, KRISTIN LLAMAS
b. Rochester, NY, 1982
Award-winning artist, Kristin Llamas developed her first solo museum exhibition at the age of twenty-two with her touring show titled The Nomadic Project in 2005.
Receiving recognition from the National Society of Arts and Letters, as well as three professional development grants, Kristin’s paintings + installations reside in museum collections including the Tennessee State Museum, the Taube Museum of Art, and the Parthenon Museum, Nashville. She has exhibited in all fifty states of the U.S., along with France, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland, including a presentation at TEDx Nashville.
No matter the medium, the artist’s focus has always been on philosophy and the environment. She is guided by the idea that art helps us understand ourselves, each other, and the world around us. Kristin is best known for sewing together scraps of canvas, then layering them with mirror-writing and symbolic imagery. These layers are what weave together a theme of thoughtfulness, wit, and beauty. She also creates through street art projects, handmade paper, and clay.
Kristin now calls the Nashville area home and divides her time between the Northeast, Colorado, Florida, and traveling North America in a van with her husband and three daughters. Her work is represented by Park City Fine Art in Park City, Utah, and DaVallia Art Gallery in Chester, Vermont.
For artist inquiries contact here.
I create art that is meant to ask life’s big questions, but not necessarily answer them.
With this mindset, I deconstruct a place, philosophy, belief, or event and invite viewers to peel back the visual layers of my studies.
The first element in my work begins with deconstructing and rebuilding my canvas. This is both symbolic and therapeutic to me as an art form. While I rip and sew canvas pieces together, I’m breaking up the dreadful “blank canvas” to create texture and composition.
Next, my color scheme varies as a response to the “feeling” of the topic I’m exploring. After the abstract background is in place, I continue by painting realistic imagery on top of this now very textural background. Most of my symbols come from ancient metaphors around nature. Flowers, water, fire, anatomical illustrations, and fabric are some of my very favorite symbolic objects to incorporate. Modern items such as keys, rope, and origami cranes have snuck in quite a bit as well!
The last addition to my paintings is when I include writing and sketches from my research. I do this by mirror-writing my words. As a teenager, I learned to write in reverse in order to keep my journals secret from my eight nosey siblings. It wasn’t until 2006 that it accidentally showed up for the first time in a painting. I had ripped my canvas out of frustration, and “repaired” it with a page out of my journal. Now intentionally added, I see this mirror-written text as both a nod to DaVinci’s scientific studies and a way to discourage viewers from becoming too focused on the words that they don’t appreciate the work as a whole… although, people are often amazed by just watching me write backward.
In the end, my goal with every painting is simply to encourage viewers to spend time forming their own questions and answers about the topic explored.
RESUME (select projects/exhibitions)
COMMUNITY PROJECTS
2021 Featured Artist, Art on the West Side, Nashville TN
2018 ¿Como te Llamas? Study of Names
2014 Deaderick Street Installation with Tennessee State Museum “#NashvilleSelfie”
2014 Nashville International Airport, Skylight Installation (2 skylights)
2013 Amaranths Tactical Flowers Installation AK-SPQR2, Vatican wall, Rome, Italy.
2013 Amaranths Tactical Flowers Installation AK-PAR4. Le Louvre in Paris, France.
2013 Amaranths Tactical Flower Installation AK-ATH1. Parthenon in Athens, Greece.
2013 Amaranths Tactical Flower Installation AK-SPQR1. Forum, Rome, Italy.
2013 Nashville’s Largest Street Art Installation: Paper Portrait Lanterns, Nashville, TN
2013 Nashville’s Largest Street Art Installation: Paper Portrait Lanterns, Nashville, TN
2012 YOUnite Tour Movement: A World YOUnited by Art
2008-2011 National Touring of The Nomadic Project: America United by Art
2005-2007 Creation of The Nomadic Project: America United by Art
PRESENTATIONS
2014 TEDxNashville “Please Don’t Stop Touching the Artwork” OZ, Nashville TN
2014 Socratic Dialogues, Artist talk, Parthenon Museum, Nashville TN
2013 Creativity Moves Conference, Nashville, Tennessee
2012 TEDx Nashville, Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Nashville, TN
2012 YOUnite Tour, Mezzanine Gallery, Nashville TN
2012 The Host Gallery, “The Nomadic Project: Beyond the Canvas”, Mobile, AL
2008 State Street Gallery, Gallery Talk, Madison, WI
2008 Homewood Studios, Artist Talk, Minneapolis, MN
2007 University of South Carolina Art Discussion, Center for the Arts, Aiken, SC
2007 South Aiken High, Open America, Aiken, SC
2006 Mansfield Center for the Arts, Painting America, Mansfield, OH
2006 Discovery School, Student Assembly, Mansfield, OH
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014 “Socratic Dialogues,” GJCC Gallery, Nashville, TN
2013 “Socratic Dialogues,” Parthenon Museum, Nashville, TN
2013 “The Mind of A Cereal Artist,” Mezzanine Gallery at the Viridian, Nashville, TN
2013 “America In Art,” Mezzanine Gallery at the Viridian, Nashville, TN
2013 “Paper Portrait Lantern Installation,” Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
2013 “America in Art,” Springfield Inn Gallery, Springfield, TN
2012 “Our Time Exhibition,” GJCC Gallery, Nashville, TN
2012 “The Nomadic Project: Beyond the Canvas” The Host Gallery, Mobile, AL
2011 “Lullaby and Awake,” GJCC Gallery, Nashville, TN
2010 “Madonna and Child,” GJCC Gallery, Nashville, TN
2010 “New Works of K. Llamas,” Hannah Davis Gallery, Memphis, TN
2009 January Featured Artist, State Street Gallery, Madison, WI
2008 Experience America Through Art, Homewood Studios, Minneapolis, MN
2008 The Nomadic Project, Minot Museum of Art, Minot, ND
2008 The Nomadic Project, Sioux Falls Empire Arts Council, Sioux Falls, SD
2008 Open America, Utah Artist Hands, Salt Lake City, UT
2007 The Nomadic Project, Journeyman Gallery, Naples, FL
2007 The Nomadic Project, The Aiken Center for the Arts, Aiken, SC
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Swipe Right Art, Frist Museum Picasso Exhibition
2020 The Studio 208 Exhibition, Nashville, TN
2017 GJCC Group Exhibition, Nashville, TN
2014 Customs House Museum, Clarksville TN “Women’s History Month Exhibition”
2013 “YOUnite Tour,” Galerie Quint-Essences, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
2013 Trespass Gallery, Clarksville TN “Opening Exhibition”
2013 Small Works Exhibition & Auction, Taube Museum of Art, Minot, ND
2013 “YOUnite Tour,” Mezzanine Gallery at the Viridian, Nashville, TN
2013 “YOUnite Tour,” Aiken Center for the Arts, Aiken, SC
2012 The Host Gallery, Mobile, AL
2011 Creative Genius, Medford, NJ
2011 Hannah Davis Gallery, Memphis, TN
2010 White Christmas, The Host Gallery, Mobile, AL
2009 November Exhibition, Talents Studio, Springfield, TN
2007 The Wallflower Gallery, Miami, FL
2006 Ramsay Art Museum, Honolulu, HI
2006 Kirsten Gallery, Seattle, WA
2006 Aesthetic Eye, Chicago, IL
2006 Carla Schmidt Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 American Fine Art, Dallas, TX
2006 Ward-Nasse Gallery, New York, NY
2006 State Street Gallery, Madison, WI
2006 Homewood Studios, Minneapolis, MN
2006 Habitat Gallery, Denver, CO
2006 Sawtooth School of Art, Winston-Salem, NC
2006 Light Street Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2006 Art 3 Gallery, Manchester, NH
2006 Ember Grove Gallery, Portland, ME
2006 LAMP Fine Art, Indianapolis, IN
2006 Utah Hands, Salt Lake City, UT
2006 Virtu Gallery, Anchorage, AK
2006 Portland Art Center, Portland, OR
2006 Art Encounter, Las Vegas, NV
2006 Terbush Gallery, Sedona, AZ
2006 Durden Gallery, Memphis, TN
2006 American Fine Art, Dallas, TX
2006 Fayette Gallery, Lexington, KY
2006 Crossroads Contemp., Santa Fe, NM
2005 Art For Act Gallery, Fort Myers, FL
2004 Artemesia Gallery, Venice Florida
2002 Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida
2001 The Shell Factory, Fort Myers, Florida
2000 Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida
1998 Memorial Art Gallery Student Show, University of Rochester, Rochester NY
AWARDS/ HONORS/ ACQUISITIONS
2013 Tennessee State Museum, Permanent Collection, Nashville, Tennessee
2013 Taube Museum of Art, Permanent Collection, Minot, North Dakota
2011 Museum Acquisition, Permanent Tennessee State Museum, Tennessee
2010 Professional Development Support Grant, Tennessee
2009 Professional Development Support Grant, Tennessee
2007 National Society of Arts & Letters Award
2006 Artist Enhancement Grant, Florida
EDUCATION
2001-2003 Apprenticeship, Cary di Valentin, Fort Myers, Florida
2002 Florida Gulf Coast University, Estero, Florida – no degree
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nashville Arts Magazine, SPECIAL FEATURE, “The Inspiration,” December 2013
The Tennessean, The Parthenon: Socratic Dialogues, Visual Arts Spotlight, Michelle Jones, October 13, 2013
The Tennessean, “Street art exhibit features 140 faces,” Nancy DeVille, Apr. 17, 2013
Nashville Arts Magazine, “Kristin Llamas: The Upside of INSIDE OUT,” Michelle Jones, April 2013 Issue
Nashville Arts Magazine, “Kristin Llamas: Our Time’, Michelle Jones, October 2012Issue
News Channel 5, Talk of the Town, Art in the Park, October 5th, 2012
Nashville Arts Magazine, “Socrates and Art”, Editor, June 2012 Issue
The Mobile Press Register, ‘Nomadic Project’ artwork on view at Host Gallery,” Thomas B. Harrison, March, 11th 2012
The Observer, “April Exhibit at GJCC features two New York Artists,” March, 2009
The Tennessean, “One Couple, 13 Months, 50 states and paintings,” Michelle Jones, June 14th, 2009
Salt Lake Tribune, “‘Nomadic’ Couple Paints Each State with Gusts of Wind, Slants of Light” Julie Checkoway, June 8th, 2008
15 Bytes, Exhibition Spotlight, “On the Road Again,”Shawn Rossiter, June 8th, 2008
Salt Lake Magazine, “The Nomadic Project Settles In,” June 4th, 2008
Naples News, Critics Pick “Experience America Through Art”, Sarah Feldberg, December 10th, 2007
The Aiken Standard, “The Canvases of Humanity”, Marti Healy, October 24th, 2007
Star Bulletin, “Art project spans the nation”, December 27th, 2006
WORT-FM, Madison Wisconsin, “The 8 o’clock Buzz,” December 23, 2006
KY3 Springfield, MO, “The Nomadic Project”, NBC affiliate, December 21, 2006
The Providence Journal, “Nomadic Artists leave a painting in every state”, Bryan Rourke, December 21, 2006
The Alexandria Gazette, “‘Nomadic Conclusions”, Greg Wyshynski, December 13, 2006
Fox 42 KPTM, “‘Two artists and fifty galleries connect the U.S. through art”, Community Correspondent, December 13, 2006
Art Ella Daily Muse, “Fifteen States Connected By Art,” Headline Story, August 30th, 2006
Argus Leader, “Nomadic couple heads to 50 states to create,” Jay Kirschenmann, Sunday, August 20, 2006
News-Star, “Art Project Through States Going Strong,” Barbara Boxleitner, May 20th, 2006
The Chattanoogan, “Nomadic Project Headed For Chattanooga,” December 12th, 2005