Lee Foley

Lee Foley is a writer and curator based in Los Angeles. She has served as the director of Bel Ami gallery since 2019. She holds an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois.

Kiah Celeste

b. 1994, Brooklyn, NY. Lives and works in Louisville, KY. 2016 BFA, SUNY Purchase.

"Kiah Celeste builds an awareness of patterns of production and consumption by re-using manufactured objects in dynamic sculptural combinations. By repurposing existing objects, the works evoke ‘life hacks,’ where the inefficiency of a broken system is clear and we are empowered to tinker with what is at hand. With each sculpture, Celeste arrives at a playful balance of strength and fragility, lightness and darkness, the industrial and the organic. Deriving beauty from the mundane, Celeste constructs monuments to the quest for new ways of seeing and relating to one another in a shaky world."

Artwork Image: Rounded Corners, Pointed Curves, 2020. Concrete, exercise balls, glass. 40 x 110 x 37 in.

Olivia Hill

b. 1985, Chicago, IL. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. 2020 MFA, University of California-Riverside. 2006 BFA, San Francisco Art Institute.

"From Olivia Hill’s landscapes, the harmonies and the dissonance of our relationship with the earth emerge. People are absent from Hill’s scenes, but signs of human occupation can be found everywhere. The humble subject of a concrete picnic table is a relic and a stage. In Los Angeles, it’s a relief to encounter a piece of public infrastructure that actually functions. From a small pocket of a city park to a macro view of a Californian poppy ‘super bloom’ from space, Hill reveals how changes in the scenery around us can produce spectacular effects."

Artwork Image: Picnic Table in Poppy Field, 2024. Oil on Canvas. 60 x 48 x 2 in.

Lisa Kereszi

b. 1973, Media, PA. Lives and works in New Haven, CT. 2000 MFA, Yale University School of Art. 1995 BA, Bard College.

"Lisa Kereszi’s photographs are saturated with failed fantasies of escape into Americana. She depicts emotional treasure hunts at a carnival, a haunted house, a strip club, a movie theater and a junkyard, to name a few. In exploring escapism, Kereszi also seeks to understand our addictive desire to flee reality, compelled by feelings of sadness and loss. While Kereszi repeatedly captures the cracks in the fantasy, her images also suggest possibilities. Often her compositions frame half-open portals—windows, doors, and bus stop shelters—that let in the light. Kereszi captures grit and resilience in bright hues; America as a cabinet of curiosities."

Artwork Image: 4th of July at the racetrack, 2000. Archival inkjet print.