Bewteen Light and Shadow

Between Light and Shadow

Kathleen Pahl

February 19 - March 15, 2026

Kathleen Pahl, "Two in Conversation (Brown and Gold)," acrylic, 12 x 9 inches.

Kathleen Pahl, "Two in Conversation (Orange and Sienna)," acrylic, 12 x 9 inches.

Kathleen Pahl, "Two in Conversation (Pink and Red)," acrylic, 12 x 9 inches.

Kathleen Pahl, "Two in Conversation (Black and White)," acrylic, 12 x 9 inches.

Kathleen Pahl, "Two in Conversation (Red and Violet)," acrylic, 12 x 9 inches.

Kathleen Pahl, "My ancestors drew these lines
On their bodies. They were burned at the stake,
Called witches, But they were children of the Earth, She welcomed them home, They sifted through her roots," Transfer on handmade debris paper, 8 x 8 inches — Kathleen Pahl, "My ancestors drew these lines On their bodies. They were burned at the stake, Called witches, But they were children of the Earth, She welcomed them home, They sifted through her roots," Transfer on handmade debris paper, 8 x 8 inches.

Kathleen Pahl, "When home is a coffin
And babies dream themselves to death,
It is a cool ache that. The wind plays menace
To the little innocent nest.",
Transfer on handmade debris paper
8”x8” — Kathleen Pahl, "When home is a coffin And babies dream themselves to death, It is a cool ache that. The wind plays menace To the little innocent nest.", Transfer on handmade debris paper 8”x8”

Kathleen Pahl, The cliff crumbles,
Falling into a dried salty sea. Seasoned with a banister, I crack the shell open, and suck out the guts." Transfer on handmade debris paper
8”x8” — Kathleen Pahl, The cliff crumbles, Falling into a dried salty sea. Seasoned with a banister, I crack the shell open, and suck out the guts." Transfer on handmade debris paper 8”x8”

Between Light and Shadow

Between Light and Shadow is an exploration of how we move between solitude and connection, and how those shifts shape who we become. My work often grows out of quiet, interior spaces, the moments when thoughts sit just under the surface, waiting for light. Through drawings, paintings, and photographs printed on handmade debris paper, I’m looking at the ways we hold our inner worlds close while still reaching toward others, even when that reaching feels tentative.

Light and shadow act as both visual anchors and emotional states. They mirror how clarity and obscurity move through a day, through a mind, through a relationship. Sometimes things feel sharply illuminated; other times they blur or retreat. The exhibition sits inside that tension, the push and pull between wanting to be seen and wanting to stay hidden.

The photographs carry the smallness of daily life: dog hair, skin cells, lint pressed into the paper alongside the images. The drawings and paintings reach outward, toward connection and conversation. Together, they reflect the way the mundane and the profound are always intertwined. We move through both at once.

This show is ultimately about attention to oneself, to another, to the subtle spaces where we brush up against the world and leave a trace. It’s about how connection, in all its forms, holds us, changes us, and sometimes shows us who we are when the light shifts.

About the Artist

Kathleen Dayo Pahl is an American artist and native of Ohio, working primarily in painting with a focus on abstraction and material process. Her work explores how identity and emotional experience are formed through accumulation, small gestures, transfers, and fragments that build toward larger, immersive compositions.

Central to Pahl’s practice is process as meaning-making. Individual marks and small works function as units of experience, private encounters, bodily sensations, fleeting thoughts, that gather into complex visual fields. These culminations resist resolution, revealing wholeness as something constructed from partial and sometimes contradictory states. Series such as Whispers, her diptychs and her larger-scale paintings reflect an ongoing dialogue between the personal and the collective, the seen and the sensed.

In addition to teaching, Pahl has exhibited her work in local, regional, and international competitions, as well as in solo exhibitions. She currently teaches at Bowling Green State University.