"Shale Split," 2024 Abstract 9.5 Ft. Oil by Kathi Robinson Frank

"Shale Split", 2024
Oil, acrylic, pastel, and charcoal on canvas, diptych
114 x 96 inches (9.5 feet wide)

In "Shale Split" (2024), artist Kathy Robinson Frank presents a commanding, nine-and-a-half-foot diptych that is both visually arresting and deeply personal. Executed in oil, acrylic, pastel, and charcoal, the work depicts a fractured, abstracted landscape—one that evokes the dramatic contours of a mountain range, perhaps with glimmers of water, all delineated by jagged thick ruddy brown lines that rupture and define the composition. A rich palette of ochre, turquoise, mauve, gray, green, and black breathes depth and vitality into the surface, capturing a moment of environmental tension and transformation. The diptych if framed as a single work with a natural wood stretcher with a black liner.

Born in New York City, Robinson Frank began painting early in life. As a teenager, she studied at the Art Students League before earning her B.A. from Bard College, where her artistic vision was shaped by the expressive lineage of Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, and Larry Rivers. Her work has been exhibited widely across the Northeast and beyond, including the Provincetown Art Association, the Kleinert/James Center in Woodstock, the Bell Gallery in Rhinebeck and Woodstock, AMP Gallery in Provincetown, MA, and the Wired Gallery in High Falls, New York. Kathi has had solo exhibitions at PS 209 Gallery in Stone Ridge and at the Wired Gallery and participated in many group shows including one at the FirstDibs Gallery in Manhattan.

"Shale Split" is inspired by a profound environmental concern—one that is also personal. The artist’s home in upstate New York is built directly atop a shale bank, a natural foundation that has become both literal and symbolic of a threat to her foundation. As fracking and drilling for gas increasingly menace this region’s geological stability and ecological beauty, Robinson Frank responds with paint: exploring rupture, vulnerability, and resilience in the face of industrial encroachment. The title "Shale Split" suggests both geological fracture and existential threat—beauty on the brink.

Monumental in scale and meaning, this piece transforms any space it inhabits. Whether displayed on a long, clean wall in a contemporary home, anchoring a corporate or residential lobby, or adding gravity and movement to a sophisticated restaurant interior, "Shale Split" brings with it a sense of place, urgency, and poetic force.