About
STATEMENT
My practice is a conversation about certainty. It questions what is presented, revised, presented again, taught, learned, and then unlearned. The method is one of return. I return — to a canonical painting, to a sitter, to a question I thought I had answered — and each return brings me back as someone slightly different, able to see what the earlier self could not yet see. I begin each painting in silverpoint. Under oil the drawing is hidden, not erased. Sometimes I sand back to those lines; sometimes I leave the silverpoint bare. What was laid down first is still there.
This way of working is informed as much by water as by the studio. I am a swimmer. I live above the Kentucky River, and the body learns in open water what the studio has been trying to teach it — that going under and coming back is method, not interruption. Each plunge brings the self up differently.
In Foundations Unearthed: Stroke and Witness, I reinterpret canonical works by Leonardo, Artemisia Gentileschi and Vigée Le Brun on my own terms. In every work, a woman was present, as stroke, as witness, or as both. The current series, Anatomia Inversa, works from early modern anatomical plates.
My training is in art history, and Renaissance drawing is my preferred method as a painter. My questions are about what history buried, what the brush returns, and what it costs to look again.
BIOGRAPHY
Christine Huskisson is a painter who explores the connection between the formal elements that comprise a work and the emotional content that charges it. Her exploration of portraiture began with a simple interest in mastering figuration. She comes to art-making through a background in arts advocacy and administration.
She co-founded and co-published UnderMain, now UnderMainArts, a Kentucky not-for-profit magazine dedicated to arts and culture, from 2013 to 2023. She co-founded and curated two of the programs promoted by UnderMain: Critical Mass and the Artist Studio Visit Series. Her lead on the annual Critical Mass Series was in collaboration with the Great Meadows Foundation and statewide arts organizations for six years.
Huskisson's passion for promoting contemporary artists' work stems from her belief that we come to know the individual through creative expression.
As writer, publisher, and collector, Huskisson has intentionally supported visual artists and writers at various stages of their careers. She has created numerous portraits of contemporary artists for Smiley Pete Publishing, AEQAI, Burnaway, and UnderMain. Those artists include Louis Zoellar Bickett, Helene Steene, Ron Isaacs, Bob Morgan, David Kenton Kring, and many more.
As writer, publisher, and Director of the husk fund, Huskisson has intentionally supported visual artists and writers at various stages of their careers. Established in 2022, the fund focuses on regional artist sustainability and fostering creative resilience within the Kentucky arts ecosystem.
She has worked as an arts journalist for Business Lexington, authoring numerous articles and composing for over fifteen arts segments on Business Lexington Television. Her primary focus is community engagement and building collaborative efforts between business and the arts and public art.
Huskisson holds a Master's in Art History and a Master of Business Administration. She has held positions that include Adjunct Faculty in Art History at the University of Kentucky, where she received a Commonwealth Collaborative Grant for her engaged research and collaboration. As Executive Director of Galleries and Collections for Georgetown College, she helped establish the Dr. Donald and Dorothy Jacobs Gallery. She secured the first piece of public art on that campus (September 2002: L'Chaim by Dennis Whitcopf). She has also worked independently for the Kentucky Arts Council and the University of Kentucky Art Museum.
In 2009, Huskisson co-organized the Legacy Trail Public Art Consortium to plan and implement Lexington's Legacy Trail Public Art Master Plan. Other Consortium members included Marnie Holobek, the University of Kentucky Department of Art, the Blue Grass Community Foundation's Legacy Center, the Lexington Art League, LexArts, and the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government.
She has also been a contributor to the Exhibitions and Programming Cabinet and Board of Directors for The Lexington Art League, Civic Lex's Civic-Artist-in-Residency Program, Public Art Dialogue, Kentucky Museum and Heritage Alliance, Americans for the Arts Public Art Network, and the Woodford County Heritage Committee, and more recently the Artist Resilience Initiative and the Artist Relief Trust.
She grew up in Edgewood, Kentucky, one of seven children. She now lives in Woodford County just above the Kentucky River with her husband of thirty years, Michael, both of whom relish the occasional visit from their son, William.
CV
Christine Huskisson
Versailles, Kentucky
Education
2002 - Master of Arts in Art History, Museum Studies concentration, University of Kentucky - Thesis: “Conceptual Art and the Interpretive and Exhibition Functions of the Museum”
1994 - Master of Business Administration, University of Kentucky
1986 - Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts (painting, drawing, ceramics), University of Kentucky
Professional Development
2026 - The Crit Lab, Patricia Miranda, founder, five-month graduate-level critique seminar, curated cohort.
2026 - Decolonized History of Art: Global Narratives from 1900 to the Present, Institution School, Santa Sofia, Italy (online, January - April), with faculty including Charles Esche and R. Siva Kumar.
2023-2025 - Renaissance drawing and painting apprenticeship with Jonathan Long, The Renaissance Workshop, online and with one-on-one instruction at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
2023, 2024 - Anatomical drawing in the cadaver lab, University of Kentucky, with Professor Brandon Smith (summers).
1987 - Assistantship in Art History, University of Georgia Studies Abroad Program, Cortona, Italy (summer).
Exhibitions
2026 - 2026 Forms and Fragments, group show at Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY (online). Juror: Patricia Miranda
2026 - Masks and Mysteries, group show at Martine's Gallery, Lexington, KY. Juror: Sherrie Graham-Greene
2026 - Reimagine 2026, group show at Lexington Public Library, Lexington, KY. Presented by Arts Connect Lexington
2026 - Quiet/Not, group show at LuigART Studios, Lexington, Kentucky (March - April)
2026 - Of Mark and Meaning, American Women Artists group show at Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, Clarksville, Tennessee (February - April) - first museum exhibition
2025-2026 - Foundations Unearthed, rotating installation at Camel Club, Lexington, Kentucky
2025-2026 - When The Earth Sleeps, group show at Martine's Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky (November - March)
2025 - Mona Lisa Exhibition, group show at New Editions Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky (November - December)
2025 - 3 x 33, group show at LuigART Event Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky (November - December)
2024-2025 - Gratitude and Reflection, group show at Martine's Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky (December - March)
2025 - Faces of Us, solo show at Charlestown Gallery, Nevis, West Indies (January - February)
2023 - Group show at LuigART Studios, Lexington, Kentucky (October)
2023 - Inner Fabric, solo show at Gateway Regional Arts Center, Mount Sterling, Kentucky (October)
2023 - Thresholds, solo show at Lexington Art League, Boyer Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky (July - August)
2023 - Hip to be Square, group show at New Editions Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky (May)
2022 - Five Painters: Kentucky Roots, Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center, Lexington, Kentucky (August - September)
2022 - Face It, New Editions Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky (March - May)
2022 - Reflections of Gratitude, Berkeley Art Works, Martinsburg, West Virginia (February - April)
2022 - Human Faces and Figures, Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, California (January)
2021 - 3 x 33, Downtown Arts Center, Lexington, Kentucky (November - December)
2021 - 13th Annual NUDE, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio (August - September)
2021 - 9th Annual National Juried Exhibition, Bower Center, Bedford, Virginia (May - June)
2021 - Empowered: What If Women Ruled The World?, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (April - May)
1983 - Hymen, group exhibition, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Kentucky
Publishing
2013-2023 - Co-Founder/Co-Publisher, UnderMain, Inc.
2006-2008 - Arts and the Economy Correspondent/Columnist, KET News/Business Lexington
Philanthropy
2022 - Present - The Husk Fund, a donor-advised fund supporting Kentucky's creative and natural landscapes, with a primary focus on artist sustainability and community-centered cultural initiatives.
Curating and Projects
2023 - Co-Curator, with Sinclaire Marie, Inner Fabric, Gateway Regional Arts Center
2018-2023 - Artist Studio Visit Project, UnderMain, Inc.
2016-2022 - Critical Mass, organizer. Symposium series produced by UnderMain; supported by the Great Meadows Foundation, 2019-2022.
2010-2011 - Co-Founder, Kentucky Museum Without Walls and the TakeItArtside! app. Kentucky's first public art smartphone app, built with University of Kentucky students and the Gaines Center for the Humanities. Presented at the Public Art and the City Symposium, April 2011.
2010 - Principal Investigator, Commonwealth Collaboratives, Kentucky Museum Without Walls along the Legacy Trail, University of Kentucky
2009-2010 - Legacy Trail public art plan, Lexington. Led eleven museum studies students who secured funding from the Blue Grass Community Foundation and LexArts and issued a national call for a master planner for a nine-mile trail. Co-Founder, Legacy Trail Public Art Consortium.
2003-2006 - Independent Contractor, Coordinator - Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series, University of Kentucky Art Museum
2002 - Secured the first work of public art on the Georgetown College campus: L'Chaim by Dennis Whitcopf.
1998-2003 - Executive Director of Galleries and Collections, Georgetown College. Established the Dr. Donald and Dorothy Jacobs Gallery.
Teaching
2006-2012 - Adjunct Faculty in Museum Studies, University of Kentucky Art Museum and Department of Art
2000-2006 - Adjunct Faculty in Renaissance to Modern, University of Kentucky Department of Art
1998-2003 - Adjunct Faculty, Georgetown College
Related Experience
Late 1980s - Assistant to the medical illustrators, Medical Arts and Graphics, University of Kentucky
Press
“TakeItArtside App Featured at Public Art Symposium,” UKNow, April 21, 2011
Bernd Debusmann Jr., “iPhone app to bring U.S. art to wider audience,” Reuters, February 1, 2011
Whitney Hale, “On a Trail of Service,” UKNow, August 18, 2010
Erin Holaday, “Collaborating for the Commonwealth,” UKNow, April 22, 2010
Affiliations
2025 - Present - Member, Women of LuigART
2022 - Present - Member, American Women Artists
2020 - Present - Member, VVrkshop
2021 - Reader, Studio Players: 10-Minute (virtual) Play Festival
2020-2021 - Member, Steering Committee - Artist Relief Trust (pandemic relief for Kentucky artists)
2015-2016 - President, Board of Directors, Lexington Art League
2010-2012 - Director, Board of the Woodford County Heritage Committee
Contributor, CivicLex Civic-Artist-in-Residency Program
Contributor, Artist Resiliency Initiative
Member, Downtown Arts and Entertainment Taskforce
Member, Kentucky Museum and Heritage Alliance
Member, Exhibitions and Programming Cabinet for Lexington Art League