For each distinct interest, desire, relationship, and moment of our lives, there exists an avenue for a different reality. Personality is built upon a foundation of these combinations of predetermined and self-selected influences that make up a lifetime. Every person, every life, every experience of the world is vastly different; and yet we are able to reconcile, relate, and show compassion.
Since childhood, I have been aware that my experience of the world was not universal. This resulted in my interest in the complexity of the individual– one who is continuously evolving to maintain true authenticity and belonging. Through use of printmaking, textiles, and mixed media, I explore these infinite facets of identity and how it develops through experience, expression, and relation to others.
Influenced by the collage medium’s potential to present the multiplicity of truth and perspective within a single plane, my work reflects the complexity of people and of life. Layering fabrics like the layers in a CMYK print, I assemble colors on top of each other to intermix and create a full color image. The use of transparent media and my intentional, exposed evidence of process within the works are tributes to sincerity. The materials’ ephemeral qualities resemble the innate ambiguity and fragility that exists in humanness, and their tactility incites our own yearning for touch.
Through my work, I honor individuality and depict a world that I wish to see– full of tender empathy and with its heart on its sleeve.
“My work depicts a universe that is beautifully, gleefully fluid. It celebrates the in-between, the unusual, the flawed, and the authentic. Bigotry and self-consciousness are nonexistent. All that matters in this universe is the diverse identities of its inhabitants and the connections between them.”
Artist Biography
Krista Chalkley (They/Them) was born in 1994 and received a BA in Visual Arts from The University of Texas at Dallas in 2018. Since graduating, Krista has audited graduate level courses to continue their education, as well as taken part in graduate level exhibitions and projects. Their work has been exhibited locally at venues such as 500X Gallery, Artspace111, RO2 Art, and in the Rising Star Exhibition at the Turner House, in which local gallerists nominate participating artists.
In addition to being an artist, Krista has volunteered and worked for several museums and
galleries in Dallas, assisting with education and programming of both public and commercial art spaces. In 2019, The Dallas Design District recognized them for these efforts and granted Krista the annual Young Apprentice Award.
THIRD SPACE DFW 