Kari Bell.

Studio Origin New Mexico, United States

Primary Discipline Painting

Focus Area Contemporary Abstract

Institution Status Founding Artist

Curated Since 2026

Main portrait of contemporary abstract artist Kari Bell, a featured maker at Mitsooz, overlooking the iconic landscape of Monument Valley. This vibrant scene captures the primary inspiration for her bold oil and cold wax compositions and her deep connection to the geography of the Southwest.

The Origin - Artists Journey

Kari Bell is a contemporary abstract painter whose path to painting came after a life shaped by movement, observation, and cultural immersion.

She spent years living and working across different places, including Pennsylvania, Denver, Taos, and now Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Earlier in her life, she spent extended time in Spain and France, where she absorbed art, architecture, music, and the layered visual languages of place. These experiences built a deep internal archive of memory and imagery that would later surface in her work.

After retiring from a long career in higher education, she unexpectedly turned to painting. What began as a simple studio class became a turning point, shifting her from structured ways of thinking into a practice grounded in intuition, material, and discovery.

In the studio, she found a new kind of freedom that replaced explanation with exploration, and observation with making.

Studio Dialogue.

"I realized I didn't want to compose pictures. I wanted to find them." - Ellsworth Kelly

Award winning artist Kari Bell, a featured maker in the Mitsooz collective, standing alongside her contemporary abstract oil and cold wax paintings at a gallery exhibition. The display features her Award of Excellence ribbon, showcasing her technical mastery and her significant contribution to the fine art community of the Southwest.

The Resonance.

For Kari, painting is a space of reflection and quiet engagement. Her work functions as a contemplative field where viewers can pause, observe, and interpret layered surfaces in their own way.

The wax-rich surfaces of her paintings invite slow looking. Forms emerge and dissolve within the material, creating space for personal meaning and quiet discovery. The resonance of her work lies in its ability to create a shared experience of attention and presence.

Kari Bell, a contemporary abstract painter and member of the Mitsooz collective, exploring the red rock landscapes of the Southwest. This environment serves as the primary inspiration for her bold oil and cold wax compositions.

The Intention.

Kari Bell’s practice explores themes of displacement, environmental change, memory, and human experience through abstraction. She builds compositions through relationships of color, light, and form that move between personal narrative and broader geographic and cultural reference.

Her work is grounded in the visual complexity of the Southwest landscape, not as literal depiction but as emotional and structural influence. Geography, history, and impermanence remain central to her inquiry.

Contemporary abstract artist Kari Bell, a featured maker at Mitsooz, engaged in the intricate process of oil and cold wax painting. The image showcases her tactical layering technique and studio environment, illustrating how she translates the light and colors of the Southwest into bold, textured compositions.

The Process.

Kari’s paintings are an exercise in surrender and discovery. Each work begins without fixed expectation, allowing intuition to guide composition as forms develop, dissolve, and reconfigure.

She treats the studio as a space of experimentation rather than resolution. This openness allows each painting to evolve organically, shaped by material response as much as intention.

The Details.

The Technical Bio.

Kari Bell is a contemporary abstract painter informed by a long background in sociolinguistics and international culture. She holds a PhD in Spanish from the Université de Toulouse, France, an MA from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Sociology from the University of Kentucky. She is a former Fulbright Scholar in Brazil.

Her academic career spanned over 30 years in higher education, including service as a department chair of Modern Language Studies before transitioning fully into studio practice.

In the New Mexico art community, she is the creative founder of Cerulean, an Albuquerque-based art caucus, and a co-founder of the Taos Abstract Artist Collective, where she served as the creative impetus for its formation. She initiated the concept, led early organizing efforts, invited the first participating artists, and helped establish the group during its formation stage.

Her work has received multiple Awards of Excellence from the Rio Grande Art Association and is held in permanent collections including the Museum of Encaustic Art and the Bernalillo Public Art Collection.

The Craft & Materiality.

The signature of Kari’s work is the relationship between oil pigment and cold wax medium. This material combination creates surfaces that can be layered, pressed, and excavated in ways that extend beyond traditional oil painting.

She uses palette knives and specialized tools to scratch, scrape, and build through layers, creating a visual record of each painting’s evolution. This process produces tactile depth that rewards slow, attentive viewing.

The result is a contemporary abstract language grounded in material presence, texture, and structural complexity.

The Accolades.

Juried Exhibitions

June–July 2026 — ABQ Abstract Artist Alliance Summer Show, ABQ Open Space, Albuquerque, NM

June 2026 — Cerulean Art Salon, Old San Isidro Church, Corrales, NM

May 2026 — Corrales Art Studio Tour, Corrales, NM

Jan–March 2026 — Beyond the Physical World, ABQ Abstract Artist Alliance, South Broadway Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM

Nov 2025 — Encantada, Rio Grande Art Association, Albuquerque, NM

Sept–Nov 2025 — Queer Magnetism, Santa Fe Community Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Sept–Oct 2025 — New Mexico Painters Exhibition, Kennedy Gallery, NM Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM

July–Aug 2025 — Cerulean Art Salon Expo, Art Mozaik, Santa Fe, NM

June 2025 — Pride Art Show, Ajijic, Mexico

May 2025 — Corrales Art Studio Tour, Corrales, NM

April 2025 — Cerulean Art Salon Expo, Fusion Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

Mar–Apr 2025 — Celebration of Women Artists, Shevetone Art Gallery, Las Vegas, NV

Mar–Apr 2025 — Abstract Expressions, Placitas Public Library, Placitas, NM

Nov 2024 — Small Works Members Show, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL

Nov 2024 — Encantada, Rio Grande Art Association, Albuquerque, NM

May 2024 — Museum of Encaustic Art, Wax-In Wax-On, Cerrillos, NM

April 2024 — Life in the West Art Gallery, Broomfield, CO

April 2024 — Omnihum Gallery, Taos, NM

April 2024 — The Gallery at ABQ, Albuquerque, NM

Jan 2024 — Gallery 3017, Albuquerque, NM

2023 — Art Mozaik, Santa Fe, NM

2023 — Fall Exhibition, Stables Gallery, Taos, NM

2023 — On Edge, Edge Gallery, Denver, CO

2023 — Come As You Are, Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos, NM

2022 — Emergence (Solo Exhibition), Taos Ceramics Center Gallery, Taos, NM

2022 — Small Works, New Mexico Art League, Albuquerque, NM

2022 — Regalos, Hecho Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2022 — New Mexico Cancer Center, The Art of Healing, Albuquerque, NM

2021 — Rio Grande Art Association Encantada (Award of Excellence), Albuquerque, NM

2021 — Desert Hearts, New Mexico Art League, Albuquerque, NM

2021 — Ghostwolf Gallery Superfunkadelic, Albuquerque, NM

2021 — New Western Artists, Western Gallery, Dallas, TX

2021 — Women’s Caucus for the Arts, Core Gallery, Denver, CO

2020 — Breaking Point, Next Art Gallery, Denver, CO

2020 — See My Color, Women’s Caucus for the Arts, Washington, DC

2020 — D’Art Gallery, Denver, CO

2019 — This Is Not What It Seems, 40 West Arts, Denver, CO

2018 — All Colorado Juried Art Show, Curtis Arts Center, Greenwood Village, CO

2018 — Hangar 41 (Solo Exhibition), Denver, CO

Solo Exhibitions

2022 — Emergence, Taos Ceramics Center Gallery, Taos, NM

2018 — Hangar 41, Denver, CO

Awards and Collections

Rio Grande Art Association — Award of Excellence, Encantada (2021, 2022, 2024, 2025)

Permanent Collections:

• Bernalillo Public Art Collection, Bernalillo, NM

• Museum of Encaustic Art, Los Cerrillos, NM

Membership:

• Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL

Leadership and Curatorial Work

Co-Founder — Taos Abstract Artist Collective (2021)

Co-Curator — TAAC Exhibitions (2022, 2023, 2024)

Founder — Cerulean Art Caucus/Salon, Albuquerque, NM (2023)

Albuquerque Abstract Artist Alliance:

• Curator, Open Space Visitor Center Exhibition (June–July 2026)

• Curator, Hispanic Heritage Center Exhibition (Oct–Nov 2026)

Education

PhD, Spanish — Université de Toulouse, France

MA, Spanish — Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

BA, Sociology — University of Kentucky

Fulbright Scholar — Brazil

The Artist's Secret (Unseen Fact).

Kari often refers to herself as a recovering academic who spent thirty years as a university professor and department chair before fully transitioning into art. Her path into painting began after retirement, when she took her first studio class and encountered a still life of yellow lemons and a royal blue cloth, an experience that shifted her trajectory toward visual work.

She transitioned from teaching modern languages to studying light, color, and material perception. This background continues to inform the intellectual depth behind her abstract practice, even as she has moved away from rigid academic structure in favor of intuitive creation.