Tarran Sklenar

Artist Statement

Tarran Sklenar is a painter from Southwest Iowa, currently living in Seattle, WA. She received her BFA from Iowa State University in Integrated Studio Arts in 2013, focusing in painting and drawing. She uses thick gestural marks and vivid color to create emotionally provoking paintings. The large scale of her work engulfs and consumes the audience, pulling them inside her world. The assertive nature of her marks forces viewers to confront the emotive qualities of paint, while drawing attention to the surface of a painting. Tarran’s paintings place you in an unknown environment, giving mere hints at specific place and time. In November of 2016, she had her first solo exhibition at Linda Hodges BLUR Gallery.

Artist Website

Tarran Sklenar
Master of Fine Arts
Painting + Drawing

[blockquote author=”Professor of Painting + Drawing, Philip Govedare” pull=”normal”]“Tarran Sklenar’s painting incorporates representation of the human figure into large scale gestural abstraction. Her subject, at its inception, derives from stories of crime scenes. While the explicit narrative is subsumed in her bold and aggressive paint handling, her paintings convey an underlying narrative of violence, intimacy, and pathos. Her paintings are ambitious, evocative, and deeply poetic.”[/blockquote]

Committee: 
Ann Gale, David Brody, Philip Govedare, Denzil Hurley, Zhi Lin