Forest Wolf Kell, Noir
December 3 - 7, 2025
SCOPE Art Show
Miami Beach
Booth A003
One Grand Gallery is pleased to announce the solo presentation Noir by Portland-based Forest Wolf Kell at the 2025 SCOPE Art Show.
The title of this collection of work is a reference to the genre of film and fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism and moral ambiguity. Kell’s nontraditional use of found and provocative imagery and its subsequent filtration and reference on the canvas emphasizes shadows, contrast and dramatic lighting—elements typically noted in noir narratives. The works are largely tonal, the use of black as a singular color an immediate vehicle for emotion, both for its boldness and the connotation surrounding the color itself.
This most recent series of paintings on linen continues on the artist’s path of using primitive (in the artistic sense) mediums. Kell uses Markal Oil Paint sticks, primarily made for industrial factories and fabrication, as his solitary mark-making tool. They are also used by graffiti artists and hobos as a tool to create monikers and markings on freight trains. The artist is connected to the way these paint sticks execute on canvas and to their use in these other capacities. The simplicity in choice of resource allows for a deeper focus on the created composition without the distractions of elaborate color and mixing of techniques. These aesthetics and styles are synonymous with angst, dissatisfaction, subversion and rebellion—relatable feelings in Kell’s life.
Forest Wolf Kell is a multidisciplinary artist and designer from Portland, Oregon. Primarily his works are collections of objects, images and icons arranged in ways meant to provoke thought.
@forestwolfkell
forestwolfkell.com
Contact luiza@onegrandgallery.com for a preview catalog
Forest Wolf Kell, Mirrors
August 24 - September 22, 2023
One Grand Gallery is pleased to present the solo exhibition of Portland-based artist Forest Wolf Kell. Mirrors presents a series of work honed from a considerable personal library of reference imagery. Culling inspiration from literature, contemporary happenings, music, and daily life these graphite collages reflect back to viewers an amalgam of information free of a cohesive narrative. When constructing each composition, Kell considers depth, proportion and shading to carefully free associate the images that most acutely resonate with him. In this manner, the focus shifts from object to a balance of the elements. The interplay between density and negative space, between light and dark, creates the harmony amidst Kell’s employed style of realism. He considers each canvas an opportunity for the viewer to seek out that which they are independently looking for. A cigarette fuming in an ashtray, the time face of a melting clock, a figure in exaltation, or the face of Charles Bukowski, Mirrors demands the audience to pick their own brand of poison. This series serves as a reflection, not only of Kell’s relationship to the collected material, but as a window into what most intrigues, or repels, one’s eye. This individual interpretation, inherently influenced by external experience and bias, lends an ever shape shifting quality to both canvas and exhibition.
Forest Wolf Kell is a multidisciplinary artist and designer from Portland, Oregon. Primarily his works are collections of objects, images and icons arranged in ways meant to provoke thought.
Press:
PSU Vanguard
Buckman Journal
@forestwolfkell
forestwolfkell.com