biography

Kelly Wagner Steinke is a visual artist whose process-driven works often evoke ideas
of paradox, reflecting simultaneously both vulnerability and strength. Encompassing dichotomies such as the delicate balance between order and chaos, life and death, matter and spirit, she embraces an inclination toward tactility through her innovative use of materials.

She received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and holds Masters of Arts degrees from the University of Houston, Clear Lake City and from the University of Texas at Austin.  She has also studied at other art schools including Pratt Institute, the New York Studio School, and the Art Students League of New York.

Her work has been exhibited in museums, universities and galleries across the country as well as abroad, notably at the Brauer Museum of Art in Indiana, the Bond Market Association in New York, Queens College, Cambridge, England, the Museum of Castiglione, Abruzzo, Italy, the Bade Museum in Berkeley, California, and the Spartanburg Art Museum in Spartanburg, South Carolina.  A solo exhibition of her paintings and works on paper was held at the Painting Center in New York City.

The artist has received numerous honors and awards including the Visual Arts Alliance
Exhibition Award, the Manhattan Arts International Showcase Award, the Lessedra
International Art Print Award, and membership in the National Honor Society of Phi
Kappa Phi.  She was also the recipient of a residency grant for the Vermont Studio    
Center and recently received a Cultural Arts Division Grant from the city of Austin.

Kelly has lived and worked in a number of cities in the USA, including Chicago and 
New York City, but currently her home and studio are in Austin, Texas.