Kristin Lane

Kristin Lane makes abstract portraits that look past likeness and focus on what sits beneath—memory, silence, fracture, repair. She didn’t grow up in an environment that nurtured creativity; instead, art became something she reached for as a way to process and survive. What began as sketching faces became a practice of trying to capture what can’t always be said out loud.

Her path has been unconventional. She studied accounting and later worked in design and product development before turning to art more fully. Those experiences shaped her understanding of form, aesthetics, and how people engage with objects. Most of her artistic education has come from long hours with ink, watercolor, pencil, and mixed media, as well as from teaching—explaining process to others clarified her own.

Lane returns often to faces—fractured, unfinished, emotionally charged—as well as themes of memory, identity, and what she calls “internal weather systems.” Influences include Jenny Saville, Louise Bourgeois, Egon Schiele, Mary Oliver, Ocean Vuong, and Joan Didion. Their work reinforced her belief in instinct over polish, in leaving room for ambiguity, and in allowing beauty and discomfort to coexist.

Her series Fragmento reflects on identity and survival, exploring the pieces we lose and the ones we reassemble. Lane hopes her work gives viewers a sense of recognition and space to see themselves differently. Success for her is not about recognition but about honesty in the process and staying with the work long enough for it to show something unexpected.

She is currently expanding the Fragmento series, developing a screenplay about friendship and mortality, and exploring new cross-disciplinary collaborations.