Gina Keatley is a contemporary abstract artist whose work examines material presence, perception, and the human condition through layered compositions and atmospheric abstraction. Her signature body of work, Untamed Moderns, is recognized for its interplay of monochrome surfaces, structural scraping, and bursts of luminous mandarin orange that interrupt fields of black, grey, mineral tones, and weathered neutrals. Through texture, gesture, and accumulation, Keatley creates paintings that function as both physical objects and immersive visual environments, inviting viewers to consider transformation, memory, and the ways meaning is constructed over time.
Travel and global observation are central to Keatley’s creative process. Time spent moving through cities, coastlines, forests, volcanic terrain, and shifting cultural environments informs the layered surfaces and atmospheric rhythms within her paintings. Rather than depicting landscapes directly, her work absorbs the emotional residue of place: light moving across stone, erosion along coastlines, mineral textures, changing weather, dense urban structures, and the organic irregularities found in nature itself. These experiences shape her approach to abstraction, allowing her paintings to feel simultaneously architectural and deeply connected to natural systems of growth, decay, movement, and regeneration.
Based in Brooklyn, New York, Keatley is also the founder of Bushwick Gallery, a contemporary exhibition space dedicated to supporting emerging and established artists through ambitious programming and curatorial experimentation. Alongside her studio practice, she continues to expand her creative work through publishing and cultural projects, including her forthcoming book Minute Muse, a collection centered on creativity, artistic process, and the enduring ideas artists leave behind through their work.
Keatley’s paintings are driven by process and material interaction. Scraped passages, rain textured surfaces, layered pigments, and exposed structural marks create compositions that feel excavated rather than simply painted. Her work frequently explores the relationship between permanence and erosion, structure and organic growth, clarity and fragmentation, allowing surfaces to retain visible histories of revision and change. Through this approach, Keatley transforms abstraction into a study of perception, movement, and contemporary human experience.
Origin: New York, NY, USA
Currently Exhibiting in: Brooklyn, NY
Instagram: @untamedmoderns
Featured Artwork at Bushwick Gallery
Title: Brillare
Year of Creation: 2025
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: Two panels, each 48 × 48 in
Edition Type: Unique, 1 of 1
Location: Bushwick Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Price: $8,600
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Description
Brillare, meaning “to shine,” unfolds as a diptych shaped through contrast, accumulation, and organic transformation. Across two expansive canvases, Gina Keatley builds layered surfaces that feel weathered by time and environment, where scraped textures, rain like veils, fractured marks, and mineral tones interact like shifting geological formations. The left panel is grounded in slate grey, softened ash tones, and atmospheric black, while the right panel opens into luminous ochre, warm gold, and dense structural passages that suggest emergence and renewal.
Throughout the work, Keatley’s signature scraping and rain techniques reveal buried layers beneath the surface, exposing earlier gestures and allowing the painting’s history to remain visible. Rather than concealing revision, Brillare embraces erosion, disruption, and growth as part of its visual language. The surfaces feel both constructed and naturally occurring, balancing density with moments of openness and light.
As part of the Persistent Prosecco series, Brillare reflects on movement, progression, and the gradual formation of identity through lived experience. The diptych considers how clarity develops slowly through accumulation, pressure, and exposure, much like natural systems shaped over time. Together, the works create an atmosphere that feels expansive yet grounded, capturing the shifting relationship between structure, environment, and transformation.
Exhibition Information
Exhibition Title: Botanic Bodies
Theme: Organic elegance, natural forms, and expansive growth
Exhibition Dates: May 14 – May 21, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 14 / 6 PM – 8 PM
Private Showings and Events: Invite only throughout the week