Kathleen Migliore-Newton

Biography

Kathleen graduated from Pratt Institute in Painting and Printmaking, receiving a BFA. She has exhibited in one-person shows and many group shows.  Influenced by the feminist art movement, and finding her voice, she began doing art based on clothing. Her pieces were shown at the Art Rental Gallery of the Los Angeles County Art Museum. She also did work in ceramic that was exhibited at the New Museum. She became enamored with the challenge of painting the exterior world of the urban environment when moving to New York City. The posture and dance of figures across the geometric landscape became her inspiration. She is fascinated by the diversity of faces and personalities on the streets and in the subway. Teaching English As a Second Language to adults for many years reinforced a curiosity about the lives of people found in this International City. She had one-person shows at The Hudson Opera House, in Hudson, NY, Gallery 10 in Washington, DC, Berkeley College, in NYC, and The NuHotel in Brooklyn. Migliore-Newton’s subway series was selected to be on #ArtonLink on kiosks throughout the 5 boros in 2021. Some of the group shows were at Denise Bibro Fine Arts, Hammond Museum, The Painting Center, CB Richard Ellis through New York Foundation for the Arts, Theresa Maloney Gallery at the College of St. Elizabeth, PS 122, and the Henry Street Settlement, Homework (a traveling exhibit organized by CAPS and several venues, curated by Harmony Hammond). She has also exhibited through the Art in the Embassies program in Vienna, Austria in 2022, in Djibouti, Africa, and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Migliore-Newton lives in Brooklyn with her artist husband, Douglas Newton, and shares a house with her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter.

Artist statement

I draw and paint the human figure in the urban environment because I am passionate about New York City's diversity. I observe how we maintain our privacy or discover ways to connect. I work from photographs to capture someone's movements and gestures as an indication of personality. I am attracted to the clothes they wear and their hairstyles. The background in my paintings has been reduced to a minimum with a focus on the people using public transportation. The color has been freely enhanced for an expressive impact. The layers of color and line help create an emotional depth. Parts of the painting are drawn to contrast with broader brushstrokes that enliven the surface. In the black charcoal drawings, the figures move across a neutral background while I choreograph them to define the space. The emphasis is on the gestures of the figures. White areas are inscribed with line and texture; figures bleed outside of an outline to express time and movement.