When only the void stood between us | Exhibition

When only the void stood between us Exhibition by Keren Kroul July 3 – August 22, 2026 Back Room Gallery Opening event during First Friday Art Walk, July 3, 6 – 9pm. Free admission. In large-scale watercolor on paper paintings and installations, Keren Kroul’s work unfolds in a landscape of memory where time and place collapse into magnificent terrains. Monumental in size while vulnerable in materiality, the work is a physical representation of the overwhelming helplessness she feels when confronted by a personal and historical legacy of loss and longing, and the ongoing violence in this country and the world. Inherited memories, neural networks, maps, flora, and architecture are distilled into units of line and shape. Fragmented and abstracted, they are repeated, accumulated, and layered into dense and detailed passages, expanding over multiple paper panels. The imagery floats and sinks, pulsates forward and away, hovering over empty space. Painted with tiny brushes, the process is intentionally labored and prolonged, embedding time into the work. Working on paper, Kroul thinks of documenting, bearing witness. The delicate nature of watercolor comes in and out of focus, recreated as it is remembered. While some images are opaque, reflecting their solid presence in the mind, others are a watery wash, the dissolving of concrete places, lives, and eventually, memories. The beauty of this work rests precariously on the surface. Beneath lies a process of reclaiming, taking up space, generating a site not only for her story, but for all of our stories, an affirmation that each life is singular and of infinite value, deserving of human dignity and empathy. Keren Kroul examines identity through time, memory, and place, in large-scale watercolor paintings and installations. Born in Haifa, Israel, to an Argentinean father and Israeli mother, Kroul grew up in Mexico City, Mexico and San José, Costa Rica. She lives in South Florida, where she teaches studio art and art history in high school and college. Kroul exhibits nationally and has received support from private and state foundations. Recent awards include a 2023 McKnight Foundation Visual Artist Fellowship (Minneapolis, MN), and a 2025 Artist Residency at the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL). Kroul’s work has been featured on television in MN Original (TPT-Twin Cities PBS), and in print publications including Paint Lab, Color Lab, Tangled Art, New American Paintings, and The Southern Review. Kroul holds a BA in Fine Arts from Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) and an MFA in Painting from Parsons School of Design (New York, NY).