True Blue
Kristen Lorello, New York, NY
March 31 - May 6, 2026
Reception: Saturday, April 18, 2026, 6-8pm
Press Release, via Kristen Lorello:
The gallery is thrilled to present its second solo exhibition of Philadelphia-based painter Kati Gegenheimer. The exhibition includes a large-scale diptych on canvas and a series of related works on paper installed in an adjacent gallery. 'True Blue' furthers Gegenheimer's ongoing exploration of lived experience, love, and feeling, here expressed in tones of the color blue. Gegenheimer's exhibition at Kristen Lorello runs concurrent to her solo exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), 'We've Only Just Begun,' curated by Leah Triplett, from April 12 - December 31.
Gegenheimer uses expressive marks and recognizable symbols of care, affection, place, and memory in a wholehearted embrace of sincerity. The focal point of the exhibition is a large-scale diptych in the gallery's main light-filled room entitled 'Only Children' that creates an immersive space. Two massive paintings shaped as archways are portals to midnight skies and oceans of flowers. A full moon in the left panel pairs with an empty night sky on the right, showing two phases of lunar orbit and tidal shifts. As the title of the work suggests, Gegenheimer uses the imagery as a way of talking about the relationship between two lifelong friends who are both ‘only children.’ Like satellites orbiting the earth, the friends’ paths diverge and intersect over the course of a lifetime. The keyhole, a common motif in the artist's paintings, appears at the bottom of each panel, symbolizing paths and possibilities to be unlocked and lived.
Changing Forms (Dandelion/Firework), 2021
Ink on paper
30 x 22 inches
Photo courtesy Charles Benton
In a related series of works on paper, Gegenheimer communicates feelings through symbolic images painted in watery strokes. Each composition features a place or thing that could in turn be taken for something else: a dandelion flower doubles as a sparkling firework; a bow, by definition, is also a knot. Displaying her love of pattern, decoration, ornate architecture, and domestic spaces, these intuitive works explore symbols of devotion and love through a single color and medium: blue ink.