ARTIST STATEMENT

I am interested in the moment when looking becomes designing—when color, shape, and form can transform what I see into something beautiful and emotionally resonant.

In a landscape, garden, or urban scene, I look for the visual story beneath what is immediately apparent—the patterns, shapes, colors, textures, and contrasts of scale that can be selected, emphasized, and transformed. I simplify and rearrange what I see, pushing the observed world toward abstraction while retaining a sense of place.

In my abstract work, I approach the same problem from the opposite direction. I begin with looseness, spontaneity, and accident, then see how much of that freshness I can preserve while bringing the painting into resolution. In both approaches, I seek a balance between exuberance and order—using color, shape, scale, pattern, and texture to make disparate elements hold together.

This way of seeing has deep roots in my career as a graphic designer and design professor, where the elements and principles of design were the language of my daily work. I now bring that visual vocabulary to oil, acrylic, watercolor, and pastel. Whether beginning with the world in front of me or with an unplanned mark, painting is the pleasure of discovering what is visually possible and bringing it fully into view.

Solo Exhibit, Shirley Stiles Gallery, Westwood City Hall, Westwood, KS, Oct. 2024

BIO

Tina Kolm is a painter who transforms landscapes into spaces of calm and order through a process of reduction and abstraction. She has exhibited her works, which highlight local beauty, extensively at venues such as Lenexa City Hall (Lenexa, KS) and Kansas City Artists Coalition Gallery (Kansas City, MO). Her work has won awards including Best of Show and First Place in 2D art. Shirley Stiles Gallery (Westwood, KS) has presented several solo exhibitions of Kolm’s painting. Tina has exhibited in several art spaces under the auspices of the Now Showing program of ArtsKC. Additionally, Tina acts as the curator of the Hollembeak Gallery (Lenexa, KS), where she champions the work of emerging artists.

CV

AWARDS

Art Council’s Choice Award , Lenexa Artists Exhibit, 2026 (Lenexa, KS)

First Place / 2D Art, HeART of Lenexa Artist Exhibit, 2025 (Lenexa, KS)

Second Place / 2D Art, Lenexa Artist Exhibit, 2024 (Lenexa, KS)

Honorable Mention, HeART of Lenexa, February 2023 (Lenexa, KS)

Best of Show, Lenexa Artist Exhibit, 2022 (Lenexa, KS)

ARTS-KC SELECTED ARTIST

Henderson Engineers, June 2026 (Kansas City, MO)

Kansas City City Hall, April 2026 (Kansas City, MO)

Cafe Parisi at Union Station, February 2026 (Kansas City, MO)

The Whitlock Co., January 2026 (Kansas City, MO)

1111 Main Lobby, April 2025 (Kansas City, MO)

Aspyre Wealth Management, June 2025 (Overland Park, KS)

OTHER SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Art on Oak Gallery, Second Presbyterian Church, October 2025 (Kansas City, MO)

Shirley Stiles Gallery, October 2024, (Westwood, KS)

Shirley Stiles Gallery, July 2022, (Westwood, KS)

Shirley Stiles Gallery, January 2020, (Westwood, KS)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Tim Murphy Art Gallery, “Heartland Artists Exhibition,” 2025 (Merriam, KS)

80 SantaFe, “Urban Landscapes,” Sept-Oct 2023 (Overland Park, KS)

Lenexa Artists Exhibit, Aug-Sept 2023, Lenexa City Hall (Lenexa, KS)

Kansas City Artists Coalition Gallery, “Art for All,” November 2021, (Kansas City, MO)

Lenexa Artist Exhibit, August-September 2021, Lenexa City Hall (Lenexa, KS)

EDUCATION

M.S. Design, Pratt Institute, New York, NY

B.A. Art, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI

MEMBERSHIP

Kansas City Artists Coalition

InterUrban ArtHouse (Overland Park, KS)