Keren Toledano is a self-taught artist based in New York City. She received her BA in English from Harvard and her MA in Arts & Humanities Education from NYU. She worked as a literary agent, Hollywood story editor, freelance writer and film archivist, before committing herself to the creative life. After publishing several short stories in literary journals, writer’s block led her to explore fine art. In her first solo show in 2017, THE ACT BUT NOT THE THING IS SACRED, she coupled abstract collage with excerpts from her torn up stories—a reminder never to marry her darlings.

She now splits her time between painting and writing, finding connections across disciplines. In addition to collaborations with interior designers and art publishers, her work has been featured at international fairs and in various magazines.

You can view her published writing work HERE.

ARTIST STATEMENT

There is no story without elements in tension. Transparent and opaque, smooth and textured— each aspect amplifies the qualities of the other. The painting is always a palimpsest, a document of layers that build on one another. As a creative writer, I am interested in the overlap of story and image, the ways in which specific marks invoke a pre-linguistic syntax. Stains on raw canvas as adjectives, hard-lined shapes as concrete nouns. What seems most solid is a mere reaction to what lies beneath it.

My current work evolved from this contemplation--that the eye and brain conspire to make meaning, but are often fooled by a moment in context. The invitation is to explore our broader perspective, what shapes come forward and which ones recede. In life, as in art, our interpretive lens is uniquely distorted, shaped by the marks on our own palimpsest.

GALLERIES

Mont Art House - Houston, TX

Anne Irwin Fine Art - Atlanta, GA

Design Supply - Birmingham, AL

Exhibit Gallery - Tulsa, OK

Tacit Collective - Canada

EXHIBITIONS

2024 - The Affordable Art Fair Austin, Austin, TX - Minted

2023 — Highline Nine Galleries, “The Collective,” New York City - Visionary Arts NYC

2021 — High Point Market, High Point NC - Kim Scodro Interiors & Liza Pruitt Gallery

2019 — International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), Manhattan, NY – Minted

2017 — “The Act But Not the Thing is Sacred,” The Yard, Williamsburg, NY - solo show