615-319-8292

Statement
Visceral environments, womb landscapes, places where alien beings and familiar feelings might both germinate and grow. My process of image development confounds me. The paintings themselves evolve once the seed is planted (painted), seemingly without my guidance. The images mature in stages, growing like organisms or plants do in their efforts to reach the light, the surface.

There is an unusual amount of Life, Death and Science that permeates my daily life (being married to a research physician). Conversations regarding microbiology over coffee, patient care while folding laundry, the passing of one's soul from body as we ourselves drift off to sleep are part of my everyday. I have had to learn to talk about blood and bone, breath and skin, natural order and biological corruption, in the same ways I have been used to talking about color and light, friends and lovers, or even groceries and gossip. Is it any wonder that what has evolved are fleshy mounds that sprout and pulsate?

Bio
Shana Kohnstamm, born in 1970, was raised in Nashville, Tennessee. She attended both the Art Academy of Cincinnati and the University of Tennessee before pursuing employment in a variety of art careers, including stained glass designer, muralist, bead-maker and scenic artist. In 2006, she created and curated the "Model Artist" show, which featured the works 22 Nashville artists portraying each other in a variety of mediums. Shana is an active member of the Nashville-based Connect 12 Artist Collective and participates regularly in a collaborative of international artists found at SpreadArt.net. Having lived in New York, Florida, Ohio and Massachusetts, Shana is settled once again in Nashville with her husband, Josh, and their dog, Marzipan.








                CV
                  Solo shows
2
          2011 The Vast Within, Red Line Gallery, Knoxville TN.
          2009 Growing Season, Twist Art Gallery (March), Janet Levine March Gallery (May), Nashville, TN.          
          2008 Faces & Figments, Nashville Jazz Workshop, Nashville TN.         
          2007 Shana Kohnstamm, (fov) Studio, Nashville, TN.
 
          2005 Fleshing It Out: New Works by Shana Kohnstamm, Plowhaus Gallery, Nashville TN.
          2002 Selections from the Passion series, Janet Levine March Gallery, Nashville TN.              
          1998 Multiple Style Disorder, Jody's,  Nashville, TN.

                 
Selected Group Shows
          2010
                  Nashville Artist Guild 60th Anniversary Show, Janet Levine March Gallery
          2009
                  Emergence Studio Series, Nashville Ballet
          2008
                  "Ship of Fools - Ship of Hope, One World"  Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Melbourne Australia
                  Untitled "Active Ingredient", Limelight. Nashville, TN
                  "Connect 12" Downtown Presbyterian Church. Nashville, TN
          2007
                  "Connect 12" Dangenart Gallery. Nashville, TN
                  GimmeShelter benefit show, various locations (2006-7)       

          2006
                 
"The Model Artists" (curator), Studio Sobro
                  Untitled "Bloom", Crystalwood Gallery
                  Full Circle Art Group, Streets
                  Untitled "11th Annual Glow Show"
                  Untitled "Heat" The Anchor
                  "Gambit 4", Twist Art Gallery
                  "Sugar & Spice", Twist Art Gallery
                  Bowling Green International Art Festival
          2005
                  "Newhaus" Plowhaus 
                  "Nashville Women Artists" Leu Gallery, Belmont University
                  "Passport to Art" Plowhaus
                  "Esteemed Colleagues"   Vanderbilt Kennedy Center
                  "Gambit:second base" Studio Sobro
          2004
                  "Heart 2 Heart"  Plowhaus Artist Coop
                  Untitled "The Art of Collaboration" (co-curator) Pub of Love Ballroom
                  "Naughty or Nice"   Plowhaus (co-curator/installation)
          2003
                  Untitled "Elements" Essence Room

                  "Value Menue"  Plowhaus Artist Coop
                  Striped Door Gallery, with Steven Hosey, Thea Suits, Anne Ambrose
                  Halcyart
                  Untitled "Blue"  (installation chair) Alan LeQuire Gallery
             
      
          

         Honors/Awards: 1988 Tennessee Art League Scholarship
                                 2003 Sensored's Starving Artist Award for Painting
                                 2009 Recipient of Untitled Special Opportunity Fund Grant
                                 2009 Inductee to the Nashville Artist Guild