Kurt Lightner has spent more than two decades mining his familial landscape — the farms, forests and laboring lives of rural Ohio that shaped him and continue to define his practice. Born and raised in Troy, Ohio, Lightner works from …
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Kurt Lightner
New York, NY
Painting and Sculpture
Biography
Kurt Lightner (b.1971, Troy, OH) received his BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design, OH, and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts, NYC.
Lightner’s work has been shown at MoMA PS1, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the Queens Museum, and reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker and Artforum. He is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.
His works have been included in many significant group and solo exhibitions: Driving Forces: Art from the collection of Ann and Ron Pizzuti, Columbus Museum of Art; Nature Reborn, WOAW Gallery Taipei Dangdai; Greater New York, PS1 MOMA; Kurt Lightner: Five Acres, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art; Queens International, Queens Museum; Other Worlds, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville. Most recent gallery shows include Harper’s NY & LA, WOAW Gallery Hong Kong & Taipei, Mark Moore Fine Art LA, Contemporary Art Matters Ohio, and Clementine Gallery NY.
His work is included in many private and public collections both nationally and internationally. Most notably: Deji Art Museum, China; JP Morgan Chase Art Collection, Columbus, Ohio; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Ron & Ann Pizzuti Collection; Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection; Pete Scantland Collection; and Julia Stoschek Collection, Germany.
Haystack Perspective
Kurt Lightner’s continued exploration of his childhood and his hometown environment of rural Ohio is evident in his paintings and sculptures. In addition to having been to all of his depicted locations in person, Lightner also relies on photographs from old family photo albums to inform his works. However, he does not seek to recreate the places in photographic detail; rather, he aims to capture an overall essence that aligns with his memories. Lightner’s paintings are the embodiment of flashbacks — concentrated spots of specific details amongst areas of clouded, fading recollections.
From the Artist
“My studio practice is one that looks deep into my family’s history with farming in the Midwest and the importance of work that defined an individual’s worth and pride within the family and their community. Through the use of landscape imagery I convey the importance of the land itself and the passed down knowledge of it from one generation to the next. The over looked workers, and behind the scenes laborers that keep food on our tables and products on the shelves to buy are forefront in my practice. Using the mediums of painting and sculpture I shed light on these lost and forgotten elements of our daily lives that keep us all fed, clothed, housed and alive.”
Recent Exhibitions
Long Island City Studio Collective
Hands on (Studio Exhibition)
Long Island City, NY
2026
Harper's Gallery
Spark
New York, NY
2024
Harper's Gallery
Kurt Lightner: I Hauled
New York, NY
2023
Mark Moore Fine Art
Los Angeles, CA
2022
Contemporary Art Matters
Columbus, OH
2021
Beeler Gallery
Columbus, OH
2021