In The Fold: Robin Feld, Kellie Lehr and Jamie Powell

“In The Fold” - Robin Feld, Kellie Lehr, and Jamie Powell

Howe Gallery at Kean University is pleased to present the exhibition In The Fold featuring works by Robin Feld, Kellie Lehr, and Jamie Powell. Curated by Shazzi Thomas, this exhibition focuses on textural and gestural experimentation, often transcending into the third dimension with the folding or layering of canvas, fabric, and paper. Through a dialogue between material and form, these artists defy traditional notions of painting. In The Fold invites the viewer to explore the intersection between texture, movement, and dimensionality, expanding the language of contemporary abstraction.

Kellie Lehr works with soft materials that carry weight and history, pushing the boundaries of what painting can embody. Drawing on the poeticism and feminist ethos of movements like Neo-Concrete, her work blurs the line between painting and sculpture. She uses mixed media to explore the full range of materiality possible with these works. Through folding, pleating, and tucking, she creates a physical tension that deepens the emotional and material complexity of her gestural washes. Balancing traditional techniques with experimental approaches, Lehr stretches some works, while allowing others to fold into layered, sculptural forms. These hybrid compositions speak to transformation, memory, and the quiet beauty of imperfection.

Rooted in her Appalachian heritage, Jamie Powell embraces a culture of reuse, repair, and resourcefulness that deeply informs her work. Her experimentation expands to the mixing of dyed fabrics that intertwine and juxtapose with differing colors and textures. Powell manipulates raw canvas through processes like folding, braiding, stitching, weaving, and staining—techniques that shift her work beyond conventional painting into a space that feels both painterly and sculptural. Delicate and domestic gestures are elevated into bold visual statements, with oversized bows and folded forms breaking free from the confines of the stretcher. Canvas strips are left to hang or pool on the floor, adding a sense of movement and physical presence.

Robin Feld’s paintings reference abstract expressionism and Japanese calligraphy while highlighting patterns of folded forms and overlapping marks, integrating a perspective connected to nature into her work. She has opened up new dimensions in her practice by printing on acetate and collaging it into her painting process—a controlled chaos that involves layering, pouring, scraping, and blending. This technique allows her to explore a range of visual textures in dialogue with her folded mark, where matte and glossy surfaces interact, and patterns can be repositioned within the composition. The interplay of printed imagery and paint adds a kinetic quality to the work, deepening Feld’s engagement with the natural environment.

In the exhibition “In The Fold,” Robin Feld, Kellie Lehr, and Jamie Powell broaden the language of painting by experimenting with folded forms and marks that create movement and dimensionality. Their innovative approaches redefine traditional painting methods with each artist using a diverse range of media to subvert historically feminine folding practices. Their commitment to process and materials has allowed them to reclaim

techniques associated with domesticity and reposition them within a contemporary, conceptual framework.