Kelli Vance

“You need not fear the terror by night,

or the arrow that flies by day,

the plague that stalks in the darkness,

or the scourge that ravages at noon.”

—Psalm 91

Long Story Short is pleased to present Noonday Demons, a solo exhibition of paintings by Houston-based artist Kelli Vance.

Noonday Demons is a series of five paintings made by Kelli Vance during a period of grief. An encounter both simplistic and personal, Vance recognized in her heightened emotional state both the affiliation and balm to the ‘Noonday Demon,’ a concept ascribed to Biblical sources, described as the ravages of apathy and listlessness. To ward off the demon, tears, prayer and memento mori are prescribed. This encounter ripples across the surface of her oil paintings, which depict closely cropped scenes pierced by protective charms and talismans. Set in a clear, light flood environment, the compositions create an ambiguous sense of time—invoking simultaneously the languid passage of months or intense, bursting moments of clarity.

In At Daybreak (2023) a snake and nazar charm dangle from a hand, set deep within lush textures, such as velvet, lace, silk and a shag carpet. Hands feature in At the End of the Day (2023), this time clutching a white rose; petals fall from an overflowing bouquet; in the blurred background is a dead rabbit. In Before Dawn (2023) a figure clutches cards to their chest, stones laid on their throat and over their heart. In After Midnight (2023) fingers thread through hair, clasping a head bowed in grief, yet in standing before the figure is a calm, meditative visage of a smooth marble sculpture. Soft folds of a scarf are knotted in The Next Morning (2023), a golden ankh hangs glimmering amidst the softly shadowed white.

Kelli Vance (b. in Garland, TX in 1983) currently lives and works in Houston. She received her BFA from University of North Texas and her MFA from the University of Houston in 2008. Vance was a finalist for the Hunting Art Prize in 2013 and completed the Roswell Artist Residency Program in Roswell, New Mexico in 2008. She was included in the 2021 issue of New American Paintings. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Cris Worley Gallery, Dallas in 2020 and 2017 and at McClain Gallery, Houston in 2015, the Texas Biennial Anniversary Show at Big Medium, Austin in 2013 and at Samuel Freeman Gallery, LA in 2011.