Kaidi Dunstan

KAIDI DUNSTAN

KAIDI DUNSTAN

TAYLOE PIGGOTT GALLERY

FACE

Wyoming-born artist Kaidi Dunstan captures the mysterious language of the human form. This exhibition brings together a world of faces and figures in Dunstan’s signature reduced language, described poetically by Dunstan in an artist’s statement as a “thicket of bafflement.” Fascinated by how face and body combine to communicate ever-fluid emotions, Dunstan’s objective in her drawings is to bring out how we relate to one another.

Kaidi Dunstan’s work looks at the shifting language she finds in our bodies and selves. “We try to connect to other bodies in different ways, building bridges between us, some fleeting, others complex. I think of myself as a wanderer and this is the territory I investigate; it’s here I find oddness and mystery.” Drawing is always the touchstone and way into the work. She finds invigoration and adventure in making a drawing, much is happening because the process is so immediate. “Drawing as an activity is intense, challenging, frustrating, uncomfortable and one has to embrace confusion and uncertainty. It’s a way of thinking and moving through a difficulty and that is its reward.” Hands, arms, and faces become emphasized. Pairings, small groupings and making use of repetition are common threads. She often takes drawings apart and puts them together in a different way. A building up of surface and texture results from the process of putting down and taking away, erasing and redrawing, picking up bits that remain, and restating in a reduced way.

Concentrating on relationships within groups of figures, or of single figures to their backgrounds, Dunstan creates multilayered, dynamic works. To achieve this, Dunstan often sketches a form onto a piece of tracing paper and then transfers it to paper or canvas. This process of layering creates movement within her compositions. Representing the struggle between the particular and the general, Dunstan’s arms, hands, and faces dance across the scene in fluid, inexplicable waves echoing the internal tension

between these physical parts and the spirit inside.

Born in 1953 in Jackson, Wyoming, Kaidi Dunstan began drawing and creating objects from a young age. Raised amidst the sagebrush, her youth was a fruitful period left to her own devices with freedom to wander in the valley and woods, engaging with animals and insects. She developed a skillset building musical instruments and furniture at a young age, which led to further inquiry into the visual arts. Though she is largely self-taught, impassioned by art, Dunstan continued with her studies in Oregon, Colorado, and London, England, training in printmaking under Katherine Jones, R.A. at the Art Academy in London. She has had numerous solo exhibitions in Jackson and group shows in Seattle and Los Angeles. She was awarded the 2002 Visual Arts Fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council. She presently lives and works in London, UK.

Brush, 2022-2023, mixed media on board, 14 x 12 inches

STICK LADY , 2022-2023

Oil, charcoal and casein on canvas

38 x 33 inches

BLACK DRAWER , 2022-2023

Ink and gouache on map on board

18 x 22 inches

FIVE FIGURES AND MOON , 2022-2023

Mixed media on board

18 x 14 inches

BRUSH , 2022-2023

Mixed media on board

14 x 12 inches

FLOAT , 2022-2023

Ink, acrylic and chalk on paper

41 1/2 x 30 1/4 inches

DREAM , 2022-2023

Charcoal and casein on paper

41 1/4 x 30 1/4 inches

DIG , 2022-2023

Charcoal, casein and chalk on paper

29 3/4 x 41 1/4 inches

BALANCE , 2022-2023

Charcoal, casein and ink on paper

33 1/2 x 42 1/4 inches

SAINTS , 2022-2023

Charcoal, casein and ink on paper

30 x 41 1/4 inches

PORTRAIT, FIGURE, WRITING , 2022-2023

Casein, ink and chalk on paper

30 x 25 3/4 inches

MATISSE AND BIRD , 2022-2023

Charcoal, pencil and chalk on paper

30 x 22 inches

DRAWER PINK , 2022-2023

Pencil, charcoal and chalk on paper 30 x 22 inches

FOUR BIRDS AND HAND , 2022-2023

Pencil, casein and chalk on paper

23 x 17 1/2 inches

FIGURE WITH BOOK , 2022-2023

Pencil and casein on paper

24 x 18 inches

DRAWER WITH EASEL , 2022-2023

Pencil and chalk on paper

21 x 18 1/4 inches

IN A BOAT , 2022-2023

MAN

Pencil and chalk on paper 23 1/2 x 18 inches

BIRD JOURNEY - PINK , 2022-2023

Pencil and chalk on paper 15 x 11 inches

PORTRAIT MARINA ABRAMOVIC , 2022-2023

Monoprint with hand coloring on paper

16 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches

RED WITH INK AND CHALK FACE , 2022-2023

Watercolor, ink and chalk in paper

15 x 11 inches

PINK ELK , 2022-2023

Watercolor and pencil on paper

11 x 15 inches

ELK NO. 1 , 2022-2023

Monoprint with hand coloring on paper 11 x 15 inches

ELK NO. 2 , 2022-2023

Monoprint with hand coloring on paper 11 x 15 inches

TWO CATS AND FIGURE 2022-2023

Watercolor, chalk and and pencil on paper

11 x 15 inches

BRUEGEL RESTERS , 2022-2023

Watercolor, pencil and chalk on paper

11x 15 inches

Watercolor and pencil on paper

11 x 15 inches

JOURNEY 2022-2023

BLUE HAZE , 2022-2023

Watercolor and pencil on paper

11 x 15 inches

FIGURE WITH STICK, 2022-2023

Pencil and chalk on paper 11 1/2 x 8 inches

TWO FIGURES ,

GOYA - OWL AND

2022-2023

Pencil on paper 15 x 11 inches

HAND AND PROFILE , 2022-2023

Pencil, oil and chalk on paper

11 X 14 inches

DARK PROFILE ON BRANCJH , 2022-2023

Monoprint with hand coloring on paper

15 x 11 inches

PROFILE AND TINY FIGURE , 2022-2023

Monoprint with hand coloring on paper 15 x 11 inches

Pencil and chalk on paper 15 x 11 inches

HEAD WITH FIGURES INSIDE , 2022-2023

PROFILE WITH TRIANGLES, BLACK SHIRT , 2022-2023 Monoprint with hand coloring on paper

14 1/2 x 11 inches

BLUE GIRL , 2022-2023 Mixed media on paper

12 x 11 3/4 inches

PORTRAIT WITH PENCIL LINE , 2022-2023

Monoprint with hand coloring and pencil on paper

11 1/4 x 10 inches

UNTITLED , 2023

Found objects

4 x 22 x 6 inches

UNTITLED , 2023

Found objects

20 x 11 x 5 inches

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JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING

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