Artist Biography
Dedicated to innovative design, Kelly Ratner’s philosophy leverages market-changing ideas to push the boundaries of design. Drawing inspiration from and skillfully reinterpreting ideas are key components of Kelly’s approach to fostering creative and collaborative environments. Kelly employs conceptual-based design approaches with meticulous attention to detail for impactful spatial experiences. Kelly Ratner is an Interior Architecture major and Dance minor from Connecticut, in the New York City Metropolitan Area. Kelly’s parallel realities are in the world of interior design and art. They crossover because each inspires Kelly’s work in the other. This describes Kelly’s practice, where she creates expressions that draw her viewer in. Kelly has consistently been recognized throughout her career for her academic and artistic achievements, having been awarded the DLF Scholarship Light & Transparency and IES Student Fixture Design Competitions. Kelly is a part of the Mortar Board Honor Society and the Kappa Pi International Art Honors Society. She has been consecutively on the Dean’s List each semester and has great involvement in the Endicott College Architecture and Design Club holding the positions of President, Secretary, and Co-Head of Fashion Show. Kelly is an established IIDA Member and has participated in the IIDA NE Design Awards and IIDA NE Fashion Show Entries titled, Manhattan Mermaids, and Obsidian. She currently is involved with the IIDA Student Mentorship Program where she is grateful for gaining more insight into the field. Kelly’s artistic range extends to dance where she has choreographed, performed, and conceptualized solo work. She has also performed in many numerous Repertory Dance Ensemble pieces collaborating with some great thinkers to make statements using movement. Kelly’s most recent work is her Thesis project, Portal. She started at carte blanche to allow herself expansive discovery. Kelly says that her mentors for this project, Parker Calvert, Sam Landon, and Michael Miller had a big impact on her thinking from early in the stages. There have been moments over the last few months where this body of her work alongside the words from her mentors have really inspired her to design beyond the limit and take her own approach, carving out something so impactful. Kelly believes that this work holds as much meaning as its expression. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are something new that Kelly has worked with in this project and she is excited to see how she implements these mixed realities into her work because this is the future. Kelly says that by utilizing these techniques she hopes that more people will be able to visualize her work in the way she views it at the start where it is an idea in her head that knows no limits. During the Fall of her Senior year, Kelly embarked on an unforgettable internship at Spivak Architects in NYC. Over the course of her time there, Kelly experienced moments pivotal to her development as a designer. It was a catalyst for her creative journey, triggering her perspective and innovative ideas and inspirations. Kelly will continue her education by pursuing an MFA in Interior Design from a school in NYC. She is looking forward to studying with some amazing people there and expanding her knowledge and network. Kelly would like to thank her mentors, Parker, Sam, and Michael for their whole hearted support, encouragement, and confidence. Their commitment and interest in Kelly’s work has been the most rewarding part of her journey. She would like to thank the faculty for supporting her creative endeavors. Kelly would also like to thank her family for their unwavering belief in her and her talents. Kelly extends special thanks to her twin sister, Emma Ratner, for designing by her side throughout this journey, providing thoughtful perspective, and helping her to realize the unrealized. Working alongside each other has enabled the two of them to design the most exceptional projects and experience the best moments together watching their creations come to life.
Thesis Abstract
Driven by her wide scope exploration of innovation in art exhibitions, Kelly Ratner, (BFA Interior Architecture) explores how design enhancements redefine the way we can engage with culture on a daily basis in order to, “move the movement.” Action is required to meld traditional art techniques with technology to answer: How can innovative approaches to immersive art exhibitions enhance engagement and cultivate stronger bonds between artists and audiences? Through her research and collaboration with experts in the field, as well as experiencing immersive exhibitions firsthand, such as Summit One Vanderbilt and Case Studies of Sphere, Kelly discovers that a shared community purpose enhances social and cultural cohesion and promotes the utilization of resources and technology. This improves art’s accessibility since there is limited opportunity for artists in public art, and a lack of engagement with their art because most museums have a traditional approach. Adding to Kelly’s oeuvre is her assemblage of visuals in the format of hand sketches and drawings, renderings, floor plans, and 3d modeling and sculpting in the medium of plaster and plexiglass. This shows the juxtaposition and perspective of her design ideas in her Thesis Project, Portal, located in NYC. By integrating materiality and theoretical frameworks, the audience can explore the intricate relationship between the human and the nonhuman. Through utilizing new methods of AI, Augmented Reality, Digital Mapping, and NFT’s, Kelly introduces the thought provoking concept to make art more accessible and more than just a ‘picture on a wall.’ She achieves this by bringing new technologies into immersive art exhibitions merged with traditional art methods like Trompe L’oeil that have changed the way we interact with art. This will make a socially cohesive space that emerges artwork into the everyday because Kelly recognizes that art is an integral and impactful part of our everyday existence. Portal showcases a series of exhibitions inspired by Christian Norberg Schulz’s, A Phenomenology of Architecture, reconstituting the ratio between Earth and Sky in three spaces: the Romantic, Classical, and Cosmic, which the last of which is stacked on top of each other on the skybridge. Contemplation of how architecture changes perception incites viewers to engage with art in a new way by using technology and innovation to reassess their engagement with art in their daily lives. Kelly’s artistic inquiry extends beyond as she juxtaposes that the sustainability and art, culture, and ethics criteria must be met. Unified, Kelly investigates how a solution is developed, yet— not limits the designer’s role in designing the extraordinary. Kelly invites viewers to embrace the avant-garde and break through the conventional confines of art interaction. This project is led by Kelly Ratner with the guidance of her Thesis Mentors: Parker Calvert of the NYC Culture Club, Sam Landon, Architect, and Michael Miller, Professor of Photography. The exhibition will be on view through May 18th, 2024.
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/kellyratner
Instagram:
@kellyratnerdesign
Portfolio: issuu.com/kellyratner/docs/kelly_ratner_portfolio