Thad Kellstadt : Range Life

Range Life

February 2014

Range Life can get lonely, out on the plains with the wind gusting up. The cornfields stretch out forever and the strip malls are pale under the blazing sun. Ubiquitous yet alien, in this vastness details go unnoticed, like the bushes outside of Target or the soil beneath the endless rows of corn. On the range, edges are invisible, blurring into the horizon, itself a distant blur of changing colors. Where are we?

Rather than melt into the landscape the work in Range Life aspires to both connect and contrast with the enigmatic plains. Delineated by hard angles, bold colors and patterns, paintings become their own non-landscape landscapes. An alien life form demands to be acknowledged. David Bowie receives an answer to a long-awaited question. And a drummer forms a new relationship to the corn grown in the field, knowing the corn, through it’s own journey to become processed and microwaveable, is also finding its voice.

Range Life doesn’t reflect the Midwest landscape but rather claims a place within it, a location and connection in the midst of the alien vastness.

Thad Kellstadt currently lives and makes work in Iowa City, IA. He was born in Circleville, OH in 1977. Kellstadt works in a variety of mediums including painting, video and sculpture. He has shown nationally and internationally at a variety of venues including The Franklin in Chicago, Wood Street Galleries in Pittsburgh, SPACE in Pittsburgh, Space 1026 in Philadelphia, Secret Project Robot in NYC, Heaven Gallery in Chicago, Alice Gallery in Brussels, Cell Project Space in London and a closed down McDonalds Restaurant in Chicago as well as screening his videos at PDX in Portland, Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, CPHDOX in Copenhagen and on Acid Rain Productions televised video art series. This is Kellstadt’s second solo show with Lump.

Lump is located at 505 S. Blount St, Raleigh, NC. More information about our mission and exhibition programs can be found at lumpprojects.org.