ARTIST STATEMENT

When I was young, I would play in the woods for hours. Nature acted as a refuge, a place that nourished my imagination. Now that I am older, I paint landscapes to offer a place of sanctuary to myself and my viewers.

I create beauty out of the local and quotidian, exploring my home or wherever I happen to be to find a scene that I can elevate. This act of transformation is a formal process: I choose scenes with strong plays of light and reduce nature’s abundance to the brink of abstraction to bring out its formal qualities. I begin with an analytical value study, which gives me the liberty in the final work to exaggerate the colors. My paintings are composed with neutral colors that I juxtapose with vibrant, saturated colors for contrast and emphasis. My process reveals the special essence of the things around us, creating new ways to appreciate and be proud of what is already there.

While the outside world is a scary place, it is necessary and important to find solace in beauty. Turning toward nature also allows us to turn inward. In this way, my work acts as a restorative balm, offering a site of meditation and calm by creating order and form.

Solo Exhibit, Shirley Stiles Gallery, Westwood City Hall, Westwood, KS, Oct. 2024

BIO

Tina Kolm is a painter who transforms landscapes into spaces of calm and order through a process of reduction and abstraction. She has exhibited her works, which highlight local beauty, extensively at venues such as Lenexa City Hall (Lenexa, KS) and Kansas City Artists Coalition Gallery (Kansas City, MO). Her work has won awards including Best of Show and First Place in 2D art. Shirley Stiles Gallery (Westwood, KS) has presented several solo exhibitions of Kolm’s painting. Additionally, she acts as the curator of the Hollembeak Gallery (Lenexa, KS), where she champions the work of emerging artists. This year, she will have a solo exhibition at the Art on Oak Gallery at Second Presbyterian Church (Kansas City, MO).

CV

AWARDS

Acceptance, Heartland Artist Juried Exhibition, Tim Murphy Art Gallery, 2025 (Merriam, KS)

First Place / 2D Art, HeART of Lenexa Artist Exhibit, 2025 (Lenexa, KS)

Second Place / 2D Art, Lenexa Artist Exhibit, 2024 (Lenexa, KS)

Honorable Mention, HeART of Lenexa, February 2023 (Lenexa, KS)

Best of Show, Lenexa Artist Exhibit, 2022 (Lenexa, KS)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Art on Oak Gallery (upcoming), October 2025, (Kansas City, MO)

Shirley Stiles Gallery, October 2024, (Westwood, KS)

Shirley Stiles Gallery, July 2022, (Westwood, KS)

Shirley Stiles Gallery, January 2020, (Westwood, KS)

OTHER EXHIBITIONS

80 SantaFe, “Urban Landscapes” Group Exhibit, Sept-Oct 2023 (Overland Park, KS)

Lenexa Artist Exhibit, Aug-Sept 2023, Lenexa City Hall (Lenexa, KS)

Art for All, November 2021, Kansas City Artists Coalition Gallery (Kansas City, MO)

Lenexa Artist Exhibit, August-September 2021, Lenexa City Hall (Lenexa, KS)

EDUCATION

M.S. Communication Design, Pratt Institute, New York, NY

B.A. Art, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI

MEMBERSHIP

Kansas City Artists Coalition

InterUrban ArtHouse (Overland Park, KS)