Rise

Kristen Margiotta is a Delaware based contemporary oil painter and illustrator whose passion for art is pervasive throughout her lifestyle. For over thirteen years, she has been exhibiting and selling her work, illustrating books, and actively participating in her local art community. She has been an instructor of art since that time, instructing at a variety of locations including at the college level. She is well known as an artist and instructor in her home state and currently has the largest number of Visual Art private lesson students in the area.

She has held two solo exhibitions, at Mezzanine Gallery, Wilmington, DE, and AFA Gallery, NYC. Kristen has exhibited in galleries and museums nationally and has been represented by the Pop Gallery, Santa Fe, NM since 2009. Her oil paintings are found in the homes of private collectors across the country, ranging from collectors of animation and cartoon art, to dark art and pop surrealism.

Kristen is a storyteller, and makes that the focus of her work. Her illustration work and fine art work have overlap, because to her, they are one in the same. She is the illustrator of the Gustav Gloom book series published through Penguin Random House, found in countries throughout the world.

Kristen’s interest in art began at a very young age, and she says it’s a lifetime commitment. Deep-rooted fears and relationships among people have always been a driving force of inspiration for her work. She combines traditional oil painting techniques with contemporary and imaginary subject matter, influenced by the Baroque and other old master work. She is known for her use of reds in her paintings, a color she associates with strength, passion, and life-force.

Her work consists of various facets, all an extension of her being. Her fine art and illustration work feature ominous gangly shadows to large eyed, sweet characters, inhabiting unsettling and surreal settings. Her recent oil paintings are non-figurative, focusing on symbolism and the human condition. She’s also returned to portrait painting, working directly from live models.

Kristen is currently focusing on a new body of paintings, geared towards non-figurative symbolism, and plans to paint on a much larger scale than anything she has previously created. Her current themes will explore the human condition, specifically focusing on death, loss, and the severance of relationships. She hopes these larger pieces will create the physical space that both she and viewers state that her work creates, almost as if the viewer is a part of the scene itself.