Kat Templeton, (formerly Kristine Kugler,) is a resident artist of Vancouver, Washington who has been practicing her unique and evocative painting style for over 15 years. She is a 2000 alumni graduate of the Vancouver school of arts and academics, a beloved wife of local musician Ryan Templeton and mother of their twin daughters, Amalie and Maiya Templeton. Kat is current in the pacific northwest art scene, showing new and large scale art monthly at the prestigious Gallery Zero located in Portland, Oregon. Her compositions cover a wide spectrum of genres that enable her to utilize her artistic versatility to the highest degree.Kat’s first celebrated group exhibition headlined her as the youngest donor to participate in the
South West Washington forward independent trusts’ (SWIFT) annual charity art auction at the age of 20.“ I was stunned by Kuglers’ paintings.” Pam Cundy, executive director of SWIFT said. “She showed us her whole portfolio and it showed
so much growth. She has put so much of her self into her work, you can just see the energy.” The Columbian Feb. 1st,2002.During the time presiding after her first exhibition, Kat pursued a few other charity events as well as feature her work locally through out business establishments. Kat began to build her clientele, and took on private commissions through out her home town. In the summer of 2008, she became an artist member of Gallery Zero and was featured in a group show for the gallery opening in October of 2008. In July of 2009, Kat created a cooperative exhibition with underground local comic guru, Ben Perkins called “COMMUNICATE”. Both Kat and Ben created a spectacle that was made specifically for the gallery that was unlike any show seen there
before.Author PD McLaren of the Portland independent media center wrote, “Pushing boundaries and buttons once more, Gallery Zero offers us local artists Kat Templeton and Ben Perkins in a wild sideshow collaborative they describe as 'part dark fantasy, part rock opera, and all truth.' Dangerously detailed phantasmagoria and hellscaped portraits promise an event you won't find anywhere else. Who would dare?”
Kat then produced a video commentary of the COMMUNICATE show with gallery investor/owner Jim Lowery called “Articulate”. The commentary aired numerous times on public access television.
Kats’ description of her paintings are portrayed as a, “deep, cerebral scream, that invites the viewers of her work to explore her fluidic application of untamed, raw emotion.” In the month of August 2009, Kat Produced a painting for Gallery Zeros’ Red and Black show that caught the eye of local renowned gallery critic Richard Spears. Richard is a columnist for Portland Oregon's largest independent news and arts paper, the Willamette Week , who wrote a captivating review of Kat Templeton’s ravishingly old-school painting, Rebuke of the Council. Richard stated, “There’s unbridled neo-primitivist panache in this slashy, drippy depiction of a pagan rite. Fearsome half-naked women with horned masks cavort in a surrealistic orgy, poking their arms through holes in the others’ bodies in a celebration of madness and the unfettered id. It’s invigoratingly composed, fantastically imagined, and 100 percent committed to itself.”
Kat Templeton is a distinctive painter who defines herself boldly by looking to the masters of the past to inspire the recreation of her dreamscapes. She expresses through her highly saturated colour pallet, a direct influence of figurative, neo-classical and surrealistic inspired design.
“ Kat is so unique. There is no other artist like her. I love her enthusiasm. I’m very proud to showcase her art. The gallery shows Kat’s art very well indeed.” Randy Scott Young curator/owner of Gallery Zero.
To submit work for 5 x 5 , email luara@greygalleryandlounge.com
Check out our blog for more information: 5 x 5 Information
Deadline for submissions is February 15, 2010
