Kerry Hirth Bio

Kerry Hirth’s work explores the translation of music into visual art. Her dry pastel drawings of music integrate the experience of music with the impulse of color.  Her recent work merges the harmonic patterns of music with the colors of landscapes, including spacescapes and satellite images of Earth.  Kerry's drawings are dense with musical, structural, temporal, and catalytic meaning, and they ultimately condense music into a sense of place. Her experiences with professional music performance and her study of analytic philosophy contribute significantly to her approach to time and place in her artwork.
 
Kerry’s work has been presented in gallery exhibitions nationally and internationally, including Paris, Toronto, and Macerata, Italy.  She frequently collaborates with musicians, including a project with the University of Missouri on the work Olivier Messiaen, as well as a curated program on the relationship between improvisational jazz and the visual arts with Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. She is a recipient of an artist fellowship from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in Nebraska and was a member artist of ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation in Chicago for six years.  
Her studio, Mount Erebus Workshop, is adjacent to her home in Columbia, Missouri.

 

 

 

Recent and Selected Exhibitions

2022
Solo Exhibition - Between Starshine and Clay, Mammoth Cave National Park
2020
Solo Exhibition - A Human Requiem, Mid MO Arts Alliance, Columbia, MO
2019
Solo Exhibition - All I Wish to Own Bert Green Fine Art, Chicago, IL
Round the Shore A Million Stood - Permanent Installation University of MO-Columbia, Bond Life Sciences Center Atrium
Enchanted Realm, Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA
2018
Solo Exhibition - Show Yourself More Human Hilliard Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Solo Exhibition - For a Hundred Years, with concert, Baker University Holt Russell Gallery
Songs of Earth and Sky, with concert, University of MO-Columbia Fine Arts Department
2017
Light and Shadow, William Woods College, Fulton, MO
Context, The Foundry, St. Charles, MO
Solar Flair, Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, MO
Moments of Intersection, with interview, Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, IL
Solo Exhibition - Heaven’s River, Resident Arts, Columbia, MO
2016
Synesthetica, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
Partiture, Civic Art Gallery, Macerata, Italy
2015
Honor Awards Exhibition, Art St. Louis Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Solo Exhibition - Hollow Lands and Hilly Lands, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL
The Long Now, True/False Film Festival, Imago Gallery, Columbia, MO
Solo Exhibition - Selected Landscapes Ellis Library – University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
2014
Night Visions, Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, AZ
Square, The Red Head Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Silence and Noise, Award of Excellence, Art St, Louis Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Gibson County Visual Arts Association National Exhibition, Trenton, TN
2013
Missouri Top 50, Missouri Arts Council, Sedalia, MO
Solo Exhibition - This Land is Your Land, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL
Art and Earth, Honorable Mention, Berkeley Arts Council, Martinsburg, WV
All About Colors, Arterie Fine Arts, Naperville, IL
Art For God’s Sake, St. Anastastia, Troy, MI
2012
Art St. Louis XXVIII – The Exhibition, Art St. Louis Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Missouri Top 50, MO Arts Council, Sedalia, MO
Variations: Art Expressing Music, Maude Kerns Art Center, Eugene, OR
The Art of Music, Flow Art Space, Minneapolis, MN
Solo Exhibition - Sonatas from a Climate of Sunlight and Warmth, ARC Gallery, Chicago
2011
Self-Portraits, Le Genie de la Bastille, Espace Kiron, Paris, France
Missouri Top 50, MO Arts Council, Sedalia, MO
Art to the Making, Davis Art Gallery, Stephens College, Columbia, MO
Art at the Center, Tomahawk Ridge, Overland Park, KS
2010
MOAK 4 State Regional Competition, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO
51st Annual Boone County Bank Show, Bank Purchase Prize, Columbia, MO
Beyond Audubond, Womanmade, Chicago, IL

Residency
Resident Artist Fellowship, 2012, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Nebraska City, NE

Teaching, Presentations and Collaborations
2018
Collaboration with composer James Funkhouser at Baker University - Holt Russell Gallery, concert with new music and artist talk
Collaboration with University of MO faculty Julia Bentley on Oliver Messiaen’s Songs of Earth and Sky, with recital, exhibition and artist talk University of Missouri
2017
Interview in curated series “Moments of Intersection” with Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, IL, May 7.
Workshop “Solar Eclipse”, collaboration with University of MO astronomer Angela Speck, Orr Street Studios, Columbia, MO
2016
Workshop “Music/Color Color/Music”, Orr Street Studios, Columbia, MO
2015
“Sound Patterns and Visual Music,” Osher Lifelong Learning, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
Chimaeric Film Studio The Artist, a commercial for HSMS Medical Group and Joslin Diabetes Center, aired in central Illinois
2014
Collaboration with Missouri Symphony Society on “Color of Music” Concert, performed live demonstrations with the orchestra, Columbia, MO
2013
Presentation, “Choosing What to Paint,” Columbia Art League, Columbia, MO
2012
“Visual Music,” a three day workshop for Nebraska City High School through Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts - Resident Artist Outreach, Nebraska City, NE
2011
Synesthesia: Creating Visual Music, 20/20 Columbia, MO
2011
Missouri Scholar’s Academy, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

Instructor at Moberly Area Community College from 2018 to present, teaching two sections per semester in Philosophy (Ethics) and once a year in Information Technology (Cyber Regulation and Compliance)

Commissions and Collections
2021
Private commission, Tattoo, pastel on paper, Kansas City, MO
2020
Private commission, Be My Witness, pastel on paper, Kansas City, MO
Private commission, Blackbird, pastel on paper, Chicago, IL
Private commission, January Wedding, pastel on paper, St. Louis, MO
2019
Public commission, Round the Shore a Million Stood, (33”X96”) University of MO-Columbia Bond Life Sciences Center Atrium
Private commission, Hey Jude, TX pastel on paper
Private commission, Our Story, Our Song, pastel on paper, Columbia, MO
2018
Private commission, Bob Dylan’s The Times They are a-Changin’, pastel on paper, Seattle, WA
2017
Corporate collection, Four Bach Preludes, large scale pastel on paper (2’X8’ each) Cohon Raizes Regal, Chicago, IL
Corporate collection, two works on paper - Day and Night, University of MO/Lux Art Consulting
Private commission, Sweet Thing, pastel on paper, Chicago, IL
Private commission, Perhaps Love, pastel on paper, Chicago, IL
2016
Private commission, Somebody to Love, pastel on canvas, Columbia, MO
Private commission, I Need Your Grace, pastel on paper, Kansas City, MO
2015
Private commission, Sonata 1, Sonata 2, both pastel on canvas, Columbia, MO
Corporate commission, Sunrise Landscape, pastel on paper, Joslin Diabetes Center
Public commission, Waterlilies, large scale pastel on canvas, (2’X8’) Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, Jefferson City, MO
Private commission, Joy, pastel on paper, Columbia, MO
Private commission, Red Sunset, large scale pastel on canvas (2’X8’) Jefferson City, MO
ABA Committee of Art and Cultural Heritage Journal, Volume XI, Issue 1
2014
Private commission, Stand By Me, pastel on paper, Seattle, WA.
2013
Private commission, Walk With Me – Pearl Jam, pastel on canvas, Jefferson City, MO
2012
Corporate commissions, Parkade Plaza, three architectural renderings, Columbia, MO
Private commission, Be Thou My Vision, pastel on canvas, Jefferson City, MO
Private commission, Holiday – Green Day, pastel on canvas, Ackron, OH
2011
Corporate collection, Boone County Hospital Patient Tower, Six Irish Fiddle Tunes, Columbia, MO
Corporate collection, Boone County Bank (Central Bank of Boone County), In the Garden - Nightfall, large scale pastel painting on canvas (2’X8’), Columbia, MO
Private commission, Stetson Kennedy, Fernandina Beach, FL
2010
Private commission, Trip to Sligo, large scale pastel painting on canvas (2’X8’) Chicago,IL

Education
AAS Computer Networks, Moberly Area Community College, MO, 2019
JD University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 2001
MA Philosophy, analytic philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 1998
BA Summa cum laude, Philosophy, minor in Music Performance, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 1994
Aspen Music School and Festival, Aspen, CO, 1991-1992

Experience with Interior Designers
Turning Art
Lux Art Consulting, Austin, TX
K Evans Interior Design, Springfield, MO
H&P Consultants, Columbia, MO
Working Spaces Interior Design, Columbia, MO