Title
Round
Color photograph
20 x 16 inches
Estimated Value Range:
$1,000 - $2,000
Starting Bid: $500
Bidding increments: $100
Lori Kella (b. 1974, St. Joseph, MI) is known for her meticulously constructed photographic fictions that explore themes of place, memory, and environmental transformation. Living along the shore of Lake Erie, Kella's work often reflects on the fragility and beauty of the Great Lakes region, resonating with those connected to water and shoreline life.
More:
Lori Kella
Artistic Practice
Kella's photographs are deliberate constructions, not spontaneous captures of the natural world. Using everyday materials like paper, soap, and wool, she hand-builds miniature dioramas meant solely for the camera's lens. Through dramatic lighting and exacting detail, she transforms these tabletop landscapes into hauntingly vivid scenes. Her images often feel at once serene and uncanny, their beauty shot through with environmental unease.
Her series Vanishing Shoreline examines climate change and shoreline erosion along the Great Lakes. This body of work has been featured in State of the Art 2020 at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, as well as in solo exhibitions at PhotoCentric in Cleveland and the Rosewood Art Center in Kettering, OH.
Notably, her photograph Clouds Over Gros Morne (2003) evokes the dramatic landscapes of Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is renowned for its rugged terrain and striking geological features, including fjords and towering cliffs.
About the Artist
Kella received a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and an MFA from Cornell University in 2001. She is the recipient of four Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, a full fellowship to Vermont Studio Center, a Creative Workforce Fellowship, and support from ArtPlace America and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
In addition to her studio practice, Kella is a faculty member at Laurel School in Shaker Heights, OH. She continues to create from her home on the Lake Erie shoreline, where her intimate relationship with the landscape continues to inspire fictional worlds that resonate with truth.
