Keren Toledano
Keren Toledano is a self-taught painter based in New York City. After years of pursuing creative fiction, writer’s block led her to explore fine art. In her first solo show in 2017, she coupled abstract collage with excerpts from her torn-up stories—a reminder never to marry her darlings. Her current work explores the liminal space between chaos and order, using a multitude of different marks to create a grammar outside of language. The invitation is to explore our perception, how we see the world not as it is but through a lens that is uniquely distorted. Every viewer reads a different story.
In addition to collaborations with galleries, designers, and art publishers, her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue and The New York Times and at international design fairs. She now splits her time between painting and writing, finding connections across disciplines.
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.
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 perspective. In life, as in art, our interpretive lens is uniquely distorted, shaped by the marks on our own palimpsest.
kerentoledano.com
Can you describe the core themes and emotions you explore in your current body of work?
When times are chaotic, people may tend toward nihilism. Yet there is beauty in chaos. By its very nature, it belies an underlying system of patterns, repetitions, and organization. I want to make works that capture the inescapable uncertainty of things, yet pull the viewer toward an underlying story—a promise that there is meaning even in the things we cannot comprehend.
How does your creative process unfold from concept to completion?
When I first approach a piece, I go through a phase of "chaotic creation," applying watery stains and random marks to raw canvas. This phase is both freeing and terrifying, as I never know what I'll find in the morning. In the next phase, I respond to what has dried, the pools and ripples, the scribbles interacting with fields of color. This is the "note-taking phase," as a story begins to form in my head. The final phase involves the addition of geometry and line—this is the order emerging from the chaos.
What inspires you most outside of the visual arts, and how does it influence your work?
I love literature and the multitude of ways one can tell the same story. I once fancied myself a short story writer, though writer's block led me to abstract art. I think of my stories a lot as I am painting, how a work of art forms its own silent language. Watery stains feel like adjectives, while bold geometries act as nouns. Adverbs are definitely dynamic brushstrokes. In my final phase of working on a piece, I may spend weeks considering which "nouns" or "adjectives" to add and how this will change the feeling of the painting. A bold red square on a cobalt blue stain tells a very different story than a random white brushstroke on the same background. Imagine reading your favorite book and removing all the adjectives and adverbs!
How do you navigate the balance between personal expression and the commercial aspects of your career?
It may sound simple, but you just have to have a sense of realism and practicality when approaching your career. Know when to tune out the noise and create from your passion. Then know when to assess what you have made for its commercial potential. No one says you have to sell all your work. Some of it may remain in your studio as germinal thoughts that lead to new collections. These phases of unhampered creation will give you the stamina for the editing phase. There is no capitulation in adjusting your work to appeal to the market. So long as you are starting from a unique place, your work will always feel original to you.
What message or feeling do you hope viewers take away from experiencing your art?
I'm not trying to change the world with my paintings. They are just an expression of how I see the world—a bit unpredictable and random at times, but suffused with meaning and color and connection. I also just hope to make people smile!
