Christina Renfer Vogel

“My work reflects an intentional turn towards beauty in the face of the tension and uncertainty of our time. Bringing plants and flowers into my studio to serve as subjects—and companions—has been a kind of celebration of vibrant life and fleeting pleasure. My attention has been rewarded with quiet stirrings. I delight in the delicate unfurling of a tender leaf and the gentle turn towards an open window as flowers seek warmth and stretch towards sunlight in the space of a painting session. 

At the same time, I have been staging still lifes that reflect my ever-shifting negotiation through life as a full time educator, artist, and parent. The work hints at the intersections of these roles through arrangements of things gathered from my classrooms, studio, and home. 

Through nourishing periods of focused observation, I have allowed myself to delight in the beauty of everyday objects, jubilant color, and sensual materiality. To me, the work is insistently joyful. They are small luxuries, defiant acts of care, and gestures of hope.”

Christina Renfer Vogel holds an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and a BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She has been featured in solo exhibitions at the David Lusk Gallery (Nashville, TN) and at Spalding Nix Fine Art (Atlanta, GA), and her work was included in the 2021 Atlanta Biennial at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (Atlanta, GA). Vogel has participated in exhibitions at spaces including the Asheville Art Museum (Asheville, NC), The Painting Center (New York, NY), and LABspace (Hillsdale, NY). She has participated in artist residencies including the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (Amherst, VA), and JSS in Civita (Civita Castellana, Italy). Her work has been featured in New American Paintings, and she is a recipient of an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant and a Lighton International Artists Exchange Program grant, among other awards. Vogel serves as a professor of painting and drawing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.