Domestic Topographies

Colin Kippen

January 3 - February 1, 2026

Colin Kippen presents new sculptural work for his first solo exhibition as a member of Well Well Projects. His brightly painted castings of everyday textures (like the embroidered stitching on a mattress or the quilted pattern of an oven mitt) emit an ethereal glow that beckons a closer look. 

Kippen is interested in the relationship the body has to everyday things we interact with. He is drawn to objects that envelope, protect, or support the body in the elapsed time of daily activities like relaxing, sharing a meal with family, cooking, or sleeping. Each sculpture memorializes these daily routines, presenting the viewer with a brightly colored facsimile of textures and forms.

The three media in his work—found objects, cement castings, and paint—exist in the temporal and spatial muddiness of past, present and absent. He creates a fresh casting formed from something now gone: a ghosted imprint of a 7-Eleven food tray, a blanket or a placemat. This indexing takes what was once an object and captures a negative, a cold gray reverse-image: its text, texture and form re-presented as a monochromatic topography. The sprayed paint encounters the cast surface at various low angles, hitting the ridges while blowing half-toned shadows over other colors, visually distorting the topography of the surface. The color infuses the cold, lifeless casting with a glow that visually connects the sculpture to vibrant flowers, phone screens and workout clothes. The final element, the found object, is something discarded, worn or fragmented, retaining evidence of past labor or wear: the rusted and bent shovel, the food-stained high-chair, or the battered mop handle. The finished works are an enigmatic hybrid, pulled from the detritus of our daily lives, translated into a mix of painting, photography and sculpture.

Colin Kippen

@colinpkippen