STATEMENT
Identity is not static; it shifts, evolves, and fluctuates. In my portraits, I carefully dissect and reconstruct color and form, but always strive to maintain that sense of mutability. My approach is informed by my longheld interest in medical illustration and my training in art history and Rennaissance drawing techniques, but I credit the looseness of my work to my Kentucky roots. In Kentucky, just a short walk from my home, Clear Creek reveals how black fades to blue as limestone and shale blend beneath shifting water. Cedar trees emerge in gentle greens, only to bend under both excessive rain and grueling drought cycles, releasing burnt umber scents. Here, color is mutable, especially as it fades to Payne's Grey in winter. I see that same sense of fluidity in my work when carefully observed features fade into gestural brushstrokes creating a dance between the presence of my subject and the presence of my own interventions. In this sense, each portrait has an edge of self-portraiture, flickering like an ethereal flame in and out of focus. My goal is that viewers too can see this dance, this flickering between me and my subject, and are encouraged to question the stability of their own identity and the narratives they construct about others. And yet, faced with this instability, my hope is that these paintings illuminate the universality of this condition and invite reflection on our shared experience of perpetual change.
BIOGRAPHY
Christine Huskisson Co-published UnderMain, a Kentucky not-for-profit magazine dedicated to arts and culture from 2014 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' works 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.
Huskisson comes to art-making through a background in arts advocacy and administration. Her exploration of portraiture began with a simple interest in mastering figuration. She explores the connection between formal elements that comprise the work and the emotional content that charges it.
Huskisson holds a Masters in Art History and a Masters in 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 work engaged research and collaboration. As Executive Director of Galleries and Collections for Georgetown College, Huskisson helped establish 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.
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.
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, the Woodford County Heritage Committee, and 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
Edgewood, Kentucky
Education
2026 - Decolonized History of Art: Global Narratives from 1900 to the Present, Institution School, spring term
2023 - Renaissance Drawing Apprentice, The Renaissance Drawing Center, year-long virtual instruction
2002 - Masters of Art History in Museum Studies, University of Kentucky - Thesis: “Conceptual Art and the Interpretive and Exhibition Functions of the Museum”
1994 - Masters of Business Administration, University of Kentucky
Exhibitions
2026 - Of Mark and Meaning, group show at Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, Clarksville, Tennessee (February - April)
2025-26 - 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, KY (November - December)
2024-25 - Gratitude and Reflection, group show at Martine’s Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky (December - March)
2024 - Faces of Us, solo show at Charlestown Gallery, Nevis, W.I. (January - February)
2023 - Luigart Studios, Lexington, Kentucky (October)
2023 - Inner Fabric, Gateway Regional Arts Center, Mount Sterling, Kentucky (October) - solo
2023 - Threshold, Lexington Art League, Lexington, Kentucky (July - August) - solo in Boyer Gallery
2023 - Hip to be Square, 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 exhibit at the Berkeley Art Works, Martinsburg, West Virginia (February - April)
2021 - Bower Center’s 9th Annual National Juried Exhibition, Bedford, Virginia (May - June)
2021 - 3x33, Downtown Art Center, Lexington, Kentucky (November - December)
2021 - Empowered: What If Women Ruled The World?, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (April - May)
2021 - 13th Annual NUDE, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio (August - September)
Publishing
2013-23 - Co-Founder/Co-Publisher, UnderMain, Inc.
2006-08 - Arts and the Economy Correspondent/Columnist, KET News/Business Lexington
Curating
2023 - Co-Curator along with Sinclaire Marie, Inner Fabric, Gateway Regional Art Center
2018-23 - Artist Studio Visit Project, UnderMain, Inc.
2016-22 - Critical Mass, UnderMain, Inc.
2009 - Co-Curator for the Legacy Trail Public Art Consortium
2003-06 - Independent Contractor, Coordinator - Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series, University of Kentucky Art Museum
1998-2003 - Director of Galleries and Collections, Georgetown College
Teaching
2006-12 - Adjunct Faculty in Museum Studies, University of Kentucky Art Museum and Department of Art
2000-06 - Adjunct Faculty in Renaissance to Modern, University of Kentucky Department of Art
1998-2003 - Adjunct Faculty, Georgetown College
Affiliations
2025 - Member, Women of LiugART
2022 - Present - Member, American Women Artists Association
2020-Present - Member, VVrkshop
2021 - Reader, Studio Players: 10-Minute (virtual) Play Festival
Member, Manifest Gallery
Member, Hyperallergic
Contributor, CivicLex Civic-Artist-in-Residency Program
Member, Steering Committee - Artist Relief Trust
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
Director, Board of the Headley-Whitney Museum
President, Board of Directors Lexington Art League
Co-Founder, Legacy Trail Public Art Consortium
Co-Founder, Kentucky Museum Without Walls
Co-Founder, TakeItArtside App
Director, Board of the Woodford County Heritage Committee