Kelli Vance's women command authority and agency, while the compositions unravel into explorations of sexuality, identity, and control. Each chosen object carries layers of symbolism: pears recalling the feminine form celebrated in Renaissance art; cheese and fruits a nod to memento mori; cherry pie evoking sexual metaphor and contradiction through its sweet yet tart nature. Luxurious foods, textiles, and accessories invite indulgence, yet the women who wield them disrupt any straightforward pleasure, imbuing each scene with ambiguity and latent threat. Through these carefully layered references, Kelli Vance crafts images that embody the femme fatale: alluring, dangerous, and ultimately defiant.
Kelli Vance graduated from the University of Houston with her MFA in Studio Art in 2008. Her work was recently acquired by Houston Airports, city of Houston, and is in the permanent collection of the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, New Mexico. Vance received an Individual Artist Grant from Houston Arts Alliance and the City of Houston and was included in the 2009 Texas Biennial. She was a finalist for the Hunting Art Prize and was a Roswell Artist-in-Residence in Roswell, New Mexico. Solo exhibitions include Cris Worley Gallery, Dallas in 2024, 2020 and 2017; Long Story Short in Paris and New York in 2023; Long Story Short Los Angeles in 2022; McClain Gallery, Houston in 2015, the Texas Biennial Anniversary Show at Big Medium, Austin in 2013 and at Samuel Freeman Gallery, Los Angeles in 2011.