Interview
Gina Keatley
Gina Keatley is a contemporary abstract artist whose practice is defined by momentum, risk, and material conviction. Her work engages pressure as a generative force, using layering, abrasion, and gravity to build surfaces that retain the trace of action and decision. Each painting emerges through confrontation rather than hesitation, favoring endurance and commitment over ease. Informed by sustained global movement, Keatley’s abstraction absorbs the contrasts of place without literal reference. Urban density, elemental landscapes, and moments of quiet disruption register through texture, spatial tension, and restrained color relationships. The work resists passivity, demanding sustained attention and physical presence from the viewer. Keatley divides her time between New York City and Akō, Japan, where cross-cultural pacing and material discipline continue to shape her studio practice. In 2024, she founded Bushwick Gallery in Brooklyn, extending her commitment to contemporary abstraction, artistic risk, and intentional making.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I didn’t enter the art world with a plan. I entered it because I needed a place where ambition, risk, and curiosity could all exist at once. My journey into the art world has been shaped by studio practice, global travel, and a deliberate willingness to take creative risks. I came to abstraction through long term experimentation with material, surface, and scale, allowing the work to evolve without relying on narrative or representational frameworks. Abstraction offered a language expansive enough to hold uncertainty, emotion, and movement simultaneously. In 2024, I expanded my artistic practice by founding Bushwick Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. The gallery was created as an extension of my belief that artists need environments where experimentation and risk taking are central rather than secondary. It has since become a platform for contemporary artists working across painting, sculpture, photography, and installation. I now split my time between New York City and Akō, Japan, where I have established a second headquarters for my art practice. Working between these two cultural contexts has profoundly influenced how I approach abstraction, pacing, and material restraint, allowing my work to operate within a global contemporary art dialogue.”
What inspires you?
“Travel and cultural displacement are central sources of inspiration in my work. Moving between countries and artistic traditions creates a heightened awareness of rhythm, atmosphere, and perception. Rather than documenting place, I translate emotional residue and environmental tension into abstract form. Japan has had a particularly strong influence on my recent work. Japanese aesthetics emphasize intention, patience, and respect for material, which has encouraged a quieter and more refined approach in my studio practice. The balance between restraint and risk has become increasingly important to me, especially when working across cultures. I am also inspired by risk itself. Choosing uncertainty, allowing work to remain unresolved for long periods, and pushing beyond comfort zones consistently leads to deeper and more honest abstraction.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“My work consistently explores themes of resilience, transition, and forward motion. I am interested in how progress unfolds through repetition, endurance, and recalibration rather than sudden resolution. Many of my paintings reflect accumulation, pressure, and release, mirroring lived experience rather than symbolic narrative. There is no singular message I aim to impose. Instead, my work creates space for contemplation, inviting viewers to engage with ambiguity, stillness, and movement simultaneously. The underlying focus is on transformation through sustained attention and disciplined risk. I’m less interested in answers and more interested in what happens when you stay with the tension instead of escaping it.”
How would you describe your work?
“I would describe my work as contemporary abstract painting rooted in process, restraint, and material sensitivity. Surfaces are built slowly through layering, abrasion, and revision, allowing traces of decision making to remain visible. The work evolves through pressure and refinement rather than immediacy, inviting sustained engagement instead of quick consumption. Over time, my color palette has become more focused and intentional, creating space for texture, gesture, and spatial tension to carry meaning. I’m interested in abstraction as an experience rather than an image, where the viewer is asked to slow down and register movement, accumulation, and pause. My practice unfolds through distinct but connected series.
In Persistent Prosecco, I explore endurance and momentum through scraped surfaces, rain-like textures, and subtle tonal shifts. The work captures resilience in motion, where light emerges through pressure and persistence becomes a form of energy. Miles extends this exploration through a global lens. In that series, I translate cities into emotional and atmospheric abstractions, focusing on rhythm, heat, and memory rather than landmarks. Each work functions as a sensory record of movement across continents, shaped by cultural immersion and transition.
Ash and Algae engages opposing forces such as destruction and regeneration through layered, elemental forms. Drawing from volcanic and marine environments, the series considers transformation as an active process rather than an outcome. Aurora shifts toward light and transition, capturing moments of quiet awakening through softened hues and restrained movement. The Linen Series further distills this approach, using minimal palettes and controlled imperfection to explore stillness, interruption, and subtle disruption. Earlier series such as Cotton Candy Madagascar and Sow reflect a more physical and gestural engagement with instinct, labor, and force. Together, these bodies of work chart an evolving relationship between intensity and restraint, risk and refinement. Across my practice, abstraction becomes a space for persistence, movement, and intentional risk, where meaning is built slowly and allowed to remain open.”
Which artists influence you most?
“I am deeply influenced by Yayoi Kusama and Mark Rothko, particularly in how both artists use repetition and reduction to create emotional immersion. Kusama’s disciplined repetition demonstrates how sustained focus and endurance can generate psychological intensity and presence over time. Rothko’s influence comes from his ability to communicate profound emotional states through minimal means. His work reinforces my belief that color can function as atmosphere and emotional weight rather than representation. Together, these influences affirm my commitment to abstraction that prioritizes depth, restraint, and sustained engagement. They both taught me that commitment is a form of risk and that hesitation shows up immediately on the surface.”
What is your creative process like?
“My creative process is slow, deliberate, and responsive. I begin without a fixed outcome and allow the work to develop through repetition, removal, and refinement. I often subtract rather than add, letting abrasion and reduction guide the final composition. Working between New York City and Akō has heightened my sensitivity to pacing and balance. Cultural differences in time, space, and material engagement have directly informed how I approach the studio. A work is complete when it reaches a state of alignment rather than resolution.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“I believe an artist’s role in society is to create space for reflection and to take risks that challenge modes of consumption and attention. Artists slow time, encourage deeper looking, and allow complexity to exist without immediate explanation. As the contemporary art world evolves, artists are increasingly defining their own structures and modes of engagement. This shift toward autonomy and global mobility allows artists to operate beyond traditional institutional limitations while remaining deeply connected to cultural responsibility.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“Founding Bushwick Gallery has been one of the most significant milestones in my career. The gallery has hosted multiple curated group exhibitions annually, supported emerging and established artists, and participated in major art fairs including the Hamptons Fine Art Fair. On the studio side, the Miles series marked a transition toward global abstraction by translating cities into emotional landscapes rather than geographic representation. More recently, Tō The Climb reflects a refined and restrained direction shaped by my time working in Japan. Splitting my time between New York City and Akō continues to anchor my practice and informs future exhibitions, series, and international collaborations within the global contemporary art landscape. Right now my practice feels less like a destination and more like momentum, and I’m very comfortable not knowing the full map yet.”
Website: untamedmoderns.com
Instagram: @untamedmoderns
