Some artists spend decades finding their voice. Diana Kemp says hers found her — in March 2024, seemingly out of nowhere, as what she describes simply as “the voice” urging her toward a canvas she’d never before considered picking up. Two years later, that impulse has produced 145 paintings, a growing list of exhibitions and awards, and a body of work that refuses to sit still.
Kemp works in mixed media, and she works without a map. There’s no routine, no fixed process, no protocol she returns to painting after painting — only instinct, followed wherever it leads. That approach reads as chaotic by design, and Kemp seems to prefer it that way, treating each canvas less as a planned composition than a discovery made in real time. It’s an unconventional way to build a body of work, but the results have caught the attention of jurors and gallery curators across the country.
The 2026 exhibition calendar alone tells the story of how quickly Kemp has moved. She’s a finalist in the 2026 Fusion Art Colors Exhibition and the April 2026 LightSpaceTime Abstracts Art Exhibition, and she placed in the California Welcome Center – Yucca Valley Art Contest. Jurors selected her for Abstract Zone 2026, and she earned a Teravarna Honorable Mention in the 14th Open 2026 Juried Art Competition.
The list keeps going. Kemp placed in the Las Lagunas Online Exhibition for 2026’s “Vintage Visionary,” and in the Part Crowd Art Gallery Mixed Media Exhibition. Her work appeared in the Digital Showcase at FOCUS Art Fair 2026 and in the May 2026 issue of Artistonish magazine. She took home an Exhibition Winner title at the Artist Space Gallery’s May 2026 Yellow Art Exhibition, and an Honorable Mention at the Megalopolitan Art Gallery’s June 2026 “Reflections in Blue” competition. She was selected for Shapes and Colors 2026, named a Special Recognition artist in LightSpaceTime’s July 2026 Primary Colors show, and included in PATTERNS (2026) at the MVA Art Gallery (Modern Visual Arts). Most recently, she was named a finalist in Grey Cube Gallery’s 2026 Green Art Show and the August 2026 CEV Art Gallery Black and White Competition, and selected for the Girlish – 2026 exhibition.
Beyond the honors, individual works have found their way into notable rooms. “Gold Rush” was featured in the Las Laguna Art Gallery’s June 2026 “IN GALLERY” exhibition, themed around textures, shapes, patterns, and forms. “Caravanserai” was exhibited at OC Arthouse in Mission Viejo from July to August 2026. And two pieces, “Space Age” and “Beach,” appeared together in the Carter Sexton Nostalgia Art Show this past August.
Two newer canvases, “Jezebel” (mixed media, 30 x 40) and “Martian Rose” (mixed media, 24 x 36), give a sense of where Kemp’s instinct is currently pulling her — bold, layered compositions that lean into texture and unexpected color relationships rather than any single recognizable style. It’s a body of work still very much in motion, which feels fitting for an artist who never set out to become one in the first place.
Kemp keeps two quotes close as touchstones for the project she’s found herself inside. One is Picasso’s: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” The other is Van Gogh’s: “If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” Given how her own story started, it’s not hard to see why both resonate.
For an artist not yet three years into her practice, Diana Kemp’s exhibition history reads like someone who’s been at this for a decade. Whether that’s the product of raw instinct, sheer output, or simply listening to the voice that started it all, it’s clear she has no plans to slow down.
Diana is proudly sponsored by Dominant Capital, Inc. More of her work can be found at dianakempdreamscapes.com and through her collection on Xanadu Gallery.
