Kjelshus Collins
Biography
Kjelshus Collins is an Oklahoma-based fine artist working in traditional printmaking and sculpture. Kjelshus attended Oklahoma State University earning a BFA and a BA in Art History. He spent much of his childhood in a truck with his parents, whose mother is a painter, selling art at major art festivals in the United States. Kjelshus, or KJ as his friends call him, has a large wealth of art knowledge and skill and intends to use as much of it as possible. Never one to focus on one art form, he often combines two different methods to create one piece, like printmaking with mold making to create a figurative piece in the form of a packaged toy. Kjelshus lives and works in OKC with his family and has a studio located near the Plaza Arts District.
Artist Statement
"I seek to combine fine art with the lowbrow. I take a societal fringe element and manipulate it to recognizable imagery using a fine art technique such as intaglio. I want to make subtle connections to things that you did not realize shaped your life. I work in a heavy amount of esotericism, but at the same time, if you are paying attention, I will make you laugh. I make these things because I feel these are ideas that should exist in a physical form. I want you to see it, maybe take it home and meet mom and dad. Artists are alchemists and sorcerers, conjuring things that previously did not exist into reality. I will always bring forth the challenge to push materials and thought into the next level. I will make connections to my guild’s antecedents; there are 40,000 years worth of us that we know of. Like the mighty tiburón, there is no stopping. There is only forward with an endless amount of material to manipulate into beauty."
Kjelshus's work was featured in our exhibition, Hodge Podge, October 2017-January 2018, and is in our Fall 2018 Group Exhibition.
