Artist Spotlight - Kelly Creef

Kelly Creef is a painter attending University of Florida who creates large scale figurative oil paintings about young Gen Z culture. Each one of her paintings is a reconstruction of a real moment from her memory using models or herself. Her work reflects today’s youth, giving each glamorous image a perfect Instagram worthy composition. Cropped so everything important she felt in the initial subject moment is included and rendered almost tangible on the canvas. Kelly drains the feelings of viewing an overwhelming amount of images daily, into her paintings. Slow painting allows her to meditate and enjoy experimenting with beauty in the moment as she works. Her intense rendering, glittering finishes, and trendy fabrics then demand the viewer’s attention. Her paintings are a commentary on the oversaturation of images and its effects on art and culture. One of her goals is to capture her audience’s attention for at least 10 seconds in the gallery. In the series “Exposed,” Kelly specifically addresses moments where she felt ashamed by her own over indulgence in unhealthy, superficial, and desensitized social media.