A.E. Kozeliski, Purple Rain, 2025, Chinese brush painting on Double Xuan using eastern watercolors and Japanese “Sumi” ink. On loan from the artist

Portraits in Passing: Contemporary Chinese Brush Painting by A.E. Kozeliski

Closing Sunday, June 21, 2026
College of Central Florida, 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd. Ocala, FL

There’s still time to discover Portraits in Passing: Contemporary Chinese Brush Painting by A.E. Kozeliski at the Appleton Museum of Art before it closes on June 21. Kozeliski, a Tallahassee-based artist, turns her brush toward the people most of us pass without a second glance: wanderers, the unhoused, the forgotten faces of everyday life. Through her brush, these fleeting figures become thought-provoking reflections of contemporary society. Displayed in the Balcony Gallery for Florida Artists, the work invite viewers to engage personally and to find their own stories within the faces and gestures portrayed. As subtle details reveal themselves, the once unseen become visible, gaining presence and dignity through the artist’s hand.

Rooted in the ancient traditions of Chinese brush painting, Kozeliski’s process draws on the discipline’s four foundational strokes (dot, line, hook and wash), along with a refined mastery of brush pressure and water-ink balance. Careful selection of handmade paper is also essential to her practice. The paintings are created in the Mogu, or “boneless” style, which forgoes outlines and instead uses washes of ink and color to define form. Through this approach, she seeks to capture not physical likeness, but the subject’s energy, or qi.

Kozeliski notes, “I have embraced an ancient art form and through the depiction of contemporary subject matter I have made it my own while respecting its traditions.”

To learn more, click here.