Krista Dedrick-Lai is a multidisciplinary artist whose work confronts the everyday struggles of motherhood, domesticity, and being human. Through honest painterly application, the artist reveals, questions and normalizes the taboo brokenness of the every day. With a full range of bright neon marks to dark ominous brushstrokes, Dedrick-Lai negotiates the nonlinear space of healing and acceptance, perpetually carving out spaces of light in the dark, and methodically making a way forward. After earning her BFA from Tyler School of Art, Krista made Philadelphia her home and now lives and works just steps from the Italian Market with her husband and young son. Her work has been shown in numerous Philadelphia spaces, galleries across the country and in virtual spaces such as I Like Your Work and Dear Artists. In 2022 Krista completed residencies with Stay Home Gallery in Paris, TN and Dear Artists, virtually. I’ll Carry It for You, a solo exhibition of Krista’s interactive fiber works, was on view at Da Vinci Art Alliance in Philadelphia in March of 2023. In 2021 a poster Krista created in collaboration with Mural Arts and Streets Dept was collected by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I am a multi-disciplinary visual artist, which is to say I make artwork using a lot of different methods and materials. Primarily I am a painter though I also make collages, drawings, videos, weavings and sculpture. I love bright colors, chunky mark-making, uneven textures and artwork that shows evidence of the human hand. A lot of what I am thinking about when I’m making artwork, whether that’s a painting or sculpture made of garden hoses and old clothes, is how to find a way through difficult circumstances or difficult feelings, into a place that is a little easier and, perhaps, even beautiful.

Exhibitions:

In The Middle With You

Perhaps, Even Beautiful