History

Kari Breese was born in Los Angeles, California in 1978. She moved to Sacramento, California in 1990. After graduating college Breese moved to Marin, Californian where she studied the beautiful coastal landscape and incorporated it into her visual dictionary.  She has been exhibiting and winning awards for her paintings for over twelve years in the northern California region, working in both water and oil based paints. She has also been moving into less traditional mediums such as house paint, and sharpie marker. She is interested in abstracting the human form, ideas about our society and exploring more abstract concepts on how space and form interact. While studying under Tom Monteith at California State University, Sacramento she was introduced to work by Philip Guston. He said, in an interview, “Painting is a clock that sees each end of the street as the edge of the world. ” This quote has been a major influence conceptualizing her paintings.   

In 2006-2010 Breese received her BA and MA in Art Studio from California State University, Sacramento. She studied with Tom Monteith and Ian Harvey who interested her in combining realistic human forms as well as abstracted organic and architectural forms, to create a dialog within the painting. She is interested with the relationship between color, space, and emotion and the manner in which they interact with each other. Additionally Breese is interested in the human form, and seeks to keep her work figurative even if it appears to be merely just an abstraction.  

Achievements: 

• 2016 Breese was asked to be part of the permanent art collection at American River College where 40 paintings are on display in one of their large departments. She was also a participating artist in the 2016, juried, exhibition at the California State Fair, where her work received numerous awards and have been displayed consecutively for six years. 
• 2015 Breese displayed work at the Berkeley Art Center * Blueline Art Gallery * Beatnik Art Gallery in Northern California.  

Additional notable awards and exhibitions:  

2005 Breese won the Crocker-Kingsley competition at American River College and displayed her art at Croker Art Museum in Sacramento California.  

2010 California State University, Sacramento: Award for Artistic Achievement, Graduate Category, First Place * The Hazlitt Painting Award * The Increased Robinson Memorial, Graduate Category, Fellowship * Work is also exhibited in San Francisco, California at Minna Art Gallery.