Kirsten M. Furlong
Gallery Director – Blue Galleries
Lecturer – ADVS
MFA Boise State University, Boise, ID
BFA University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE
As director of the Blue Galleries, Kirsten curates and organizes exhibitions of contemporary visual art by regional and national artists, students and faculty. The Blue Galleries are located on the first floor of the Center for the Visual Arts and information about current exhibitions can be found on the Department of Art, Design, and Visual Studies (ADVS) events page or on the Blue Galleries site. Kirsten teaches Art 490 BFA Exhibition which is the capstone course for the BFA degrees in Visual Art and Art Education. To contact Kirsten with questions about the Blue Galleries, please email kfurlong@boisestate.edu
Click here to visit the ADVS home page and upcoming events.
Click here to visit the Blue Galleries web page.
Kirsten’s work has been shown nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. In her work, she examines the ecological and poetic bonds we have with animals, plants, and insects on lands that we collectively inhabit, from the viewpoint of a mixed race (Black/white) woman in the American West. Recent projects consider nuclear waste in the high desert of Idaho, declining habitat in the grasslands of the Great Plains, and the effects of climate change on species everywhere. In the work, animals and plants serve as both emblems of nature and as metaphors for human desires. Kirsten uses detail, repetition, and patterns inspired by the natural world as a representational tool in drawings and installation works while also using mark making to express empathy, loss, and longing. Her work has been supported by fellowships and residencies with the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Great Plains Art Museum, Montello Foundation, Jentel Foundation, Good Hart Artist Residency, Denali National Park and Preserve, Playa, Prairieside Outpost, Signal Fire, and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.