Andrea Kastner Art

Trespassing on the domain of ghosts (2020-2023)

Walking Distance, oil on canvas, 48”x72”, 2023.

Commitment to Excellence, oil on canvas, 72”x42”, 2021.

Jacob's Dream, oil on canvas, 42”x42”, 2021

Same as it ever was, oil on canvas, 42”x42”, 2020.

Through the looking glass, oil on canvas, 26”x18”, 2021

Music of the Spheres I & II, oil on panel, 6”x6” each, 2022.

Lot, oil on panel, 18”x12”, 2021.

Floodgates, 12”x12”, oil on canvas, 2021.

All that is solid melts into air, oil on panel, 10”x8”, 2021.

Habitat, oil on panel, 8”x8”, 2021.

Till death do us part, oil on panel, 14”x11”, 2021.

Installation View: Trespassing on the domain of ghosts, Hope Horn Gallery, University of Scranton, Scranton, PA, 2021.

Installation View: Trespassing on the domain of ghosts, Hope Horn Gallery, University of Scranton, Scranton, PA, 2021.

Installation view: In my secret life, Neighbors Gallery, Ithaca, NY

The Edges of Things

I spent the summer of 2018 painting at a landfill in Haliburton, Ontario. Sitting on the side of a hill made of the accumulated decades of refuse, painting the landscape of our unwanted goods, I was thinking of the way these mountains of stuff are an accidental construction of our times, a shadow city built beside the one we live in. On one hand is the urban landscape built with the things we chose, and here was the landfill, carved by the negative space of our desires.

Altar, oil on canvas, 42"X60", 2018.

Tower and Rubble, oil on canvas, 75"X39", 2018.

Is it the bridge between worlds that makes you feel alone?, oil on canvas, 30”x22”, 2019.

Invisible House, oil on canvas, 30”x30”, 2019.

As it is written, oil on canvas, 30"X30", 2018.

How clearly we see as it all falls apart, oil on canvas, 42"X42", 2018.

Mirrors, oil on canvas, 30"X50", 2018.

Trespassing on the domain of ghosts, oil on panel, 10”x8”, 2019.

The Unbearable Lightness, oil on canvas, 16”x9”, 2019.

The Edges of Things, oil on panel, 8”x10”, 2019.

Shards, oil on panel, 8”x8”, 2018.

Portals, oil on panel, 8”x8”, 2018

Installation View, Galerie McClure (Photo: Paul Litherland)

Shadow Cities

The city is a text being written and re-written, with evidence of revisions in every delicate scar traced on a brick wall. As buildings are torn down, façades exposed, garbage collected and dumped in the landfill, drafts and corrections to the city are made visible. These paintings are a half-written poem to the shadow city, the secrets and ghosts in crumbling and neglected objects, doors that are not walked through but rather appear as portals to alternate worlds

No Home Like Place, oil on canvas, 36"X60", 2017.

Home Again, oil on canvas, 22"X26", 2017.

Offering, oil on panel, 8"X8", 2017.

Anthem, oil on canvas, 15" X 15", 2017.

Today For Tomorrow, oil on canvas, 10"X10", 2017.

Between Worlds, oil on canvas, 22"X26", 2017.

On This Broken Hill, oil on panel, 10"X10", 2017.

These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruins, oil on canvas, 12"X12", 2017.

Ghost House, oil on canvas, 60" X 72", 2016.

Dreamers, oil on canvas, 22" X 26", 2016.

Heartbreak, oil on canvas, 30" X 40", 2016.

Building/Unbuilding, oil on canvas, 42" X 42", 2016.

Fissures, oil on canvas, 38x48", 2016.

Progress, oil on canvas, 36" X 60", 2014

Installation View, Galerie Ymuno

The Waste Land

The Waste Land is a body of work that traces the haunting nature of our rejected possessions through a collaged, recycled and surreal world.

At the heart of my work is the concept that our trash is akin to our unconscious mind. When we throw away our rubbish at the end of the week, we seal it into a black bag in an act of forgetting, wishing to never see it again. The very idea of someone else glimpsing the contents of our garbage seems incredibly intimate or invasive. My paintings are something of an act of acknowledgement toward this largely private and unexplored realm of our possessions. Even the landfills are teeming with our stuff, though we choose to disavow it. These mountains of things are a sort of accidental construction of our times, a shadow city built beside the one we live in. I wish to take a symbolic inventory of these things, to claim them as part of our lives.

The Inventory Of Dreams, Oil On Canvas, 60"X84", 2014.

The One That Got Away, Oil On Canvas, 38"X48", 2013.

Beautiful Losers, Oil On Canvas, 30"X40", 2014.

Woodlands, Oil On Canvas, 38"X48", 2014.

Keepsake, Oil On Canvas, 42"X42", 2014.

Small Disasters (Installation View), Oil on Panel, 15”x15” each, 2014.

Small Disasters, Oil On Panel, 15"X 15", 2014.

Installation View, Kamloops Art Gallery

small disasters

My work is concerned with excess and with the sacred nature of rejected things. I create scenes of invasion, where the detritus of our everyday begins to seep out of the cracks of ordinary cityscapes, confronting us with the things that we try to hide. I paint these things from collages or crumpled photographs, working from my own documentation of bags of household trash, images of my childhood basement and photos that I take in the backyards and alleyways of the cities I live in.

Leftovers, Oil On Canvas, 24" X 32", 2013.

Rafters, Oil On Canvas, 36" X 48", 2013.

Travellers, Oil On Canvas, 42"X72", 2013.

Noah's Ark, Oil On Canvas, 47" X 75", 2013.

Good Neighbours, Oil On Canvas, 38" X 48", 2013.

Work In Progress, Oil On Canvas, 42" X42", 2013.

Storage Solutions, Oil On Canvas, 48" X 60", 2013.

Leftovers II, Oil On Canvas, 24" X 32", 2013.

Leftovers III, Oil On Canvas, 15"X15", 2014.

Installation View, Harcourt House

amass

By looking thoughtfully at the underbelly of things, at the hidden, the thrown away, the shadow side of how we define ourselves, I hope to illuminate the weight which all of this exerts on us. Every era is defined by what it chooses to disavow, but this does not lessen the influence, the unconscious pushback of what we look away from. By carefully painting these crumpled things, I am trying to redeem in visual language that which has been discarded.

Demolition, Oil On Canvas, 72" X 60", 2012.

Urban Gleaner, Oil On Canvas, 60" X 96", 2011.

Float, Oil On Canvas, 36" X 48", 2011.

Smokestacks, Oil On Canvas, 24" X 36", 2010.

Insulation Room, Oil On Canvas, 48" X 60", 2011.

In Case, Oil On Canvas, 24" X 30", 2011.

Makeshift, Oil On Canvas, 36"X36", 2011.

Storage Crisis, Oil On Canvas, 42" X 90", 2012.

Seep, Oil On Canvas, 48" X 72", 2010.

Crumple, Oil On Canvas, 48" X 72", 2010.

Ghost, Oil On Canvas, 48" X 60", 2012.

Garbage Excavation (Video Still)

Installation View, FAB Gallery

Urban Diary (2007-2009)

As we empty out our pockets at the end of the day, we unearth a small cascade of tickets, transfers, wrappers and receipts. These little remnants of our daily trajectories, which usually end up in the garbage can, are the raw materials that I use to build my cityscapes.

I am interested in the intimate, authentic feeling of this side of the city: the anti-façade. The medium I use in these works is appropriately unglamorous. Working on plywood, I built up a collaged surface of everyday materials including metro transfers, shopping bags, duct tape and price tags. The subtle juxtapositions between form and material hint at a coded message, incomprehensible despite the overwhelming familiarity of its contents. The frustration inherent in this process mirrors our vaguely alienated sense of belonging to the city itself.