Artist Statement
Growing up in Texas is more than just a place of residence, the months of hundred degree weather, or even the low tax rates. Chloe’s understanding was full of rotting oil rigs, dried up cotton plants, and west Texas dust storms. Her identity as a young girl was docile as her parents gifted Barbies alongside long baby-pink BB shotguns. These juxtapositions continue to inform her work. Through her practice, Chloe examines how her identity operates within Southern landscapes, particularly where it intersects with constructions of femininity. By drawing on personal and collective memory, she explores the shared experiences that emerge from these entersections.
Challenging traditional portraiture and still life, Chloe re-imagines these genres by merging figures, objects, and environments into layered compositions that blur the lines between observation and recollection. Combining visual elements to create an abstracted reflection of her experience as a queer woman in southern spaces. Blending memory, material, and meaning to explore themes of identity and experience shared across her viewers.
Biography
Chloe Renee is a painter and print-maker based in Denton, Texas. She is currently pursuing a BFA in Studio Art: Painting and Drawing at the University of North Texas.
Growing up in Austin, Texas, Chloe has been surrounded by local artists and public displays of artwork. Though a lot of her artistic inspiration spans from local central-Texas artists, her original introduction came from the other creative of the family, her grandmother. Using her grandmothers name, Renee, Chloe finds her practice to be a reflection of her grandmothers practice.
She spent her childhood in curated galleries and exhibits such as the Blanton Museum of art and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. She has a particular interest in art history and contemporary art which shapes her own artistic practice. Finding most inspiration in contemporary painting, Chloe works to challenge and expand how we understand the medium, pushing the boundaries of portraiture and still life.
