BIO
Kathryn is an interdisciplinary artist from Kansas City who works in a variety of media exploring the construction of self through the environment. As a child of adoption, the void in Kathryn’s biological heritage forced upon her the need to reference her environment to inform her sense of self. Through this framework, Kathryn grapples with audience perceptions beyond her control. Shifts in her body and culture inspire her to create work that disorients viewers as she engages in conversation about the semiotics of the self and how societal constructs regulate individuality and self value.
Kathryn holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute while pursuing her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been published in Core.Zine and she has most recently exhibited at Plug Gallery, Weinberger Fine Art, The Bunker Center For The Arts, Vulpes Bastille, Dragon Crab Turtle, and Purple Window Gallery in Chicago.
CV
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work searches for a sense of belonging, balancing the host of emotions stemming from a belief that I wasn’t meant to exist. The experience of being “given up” casts me out into a void reaching out for survival and in hopes that someone, anyone, will reach back. Silicone monsters “born” with culturally perfect hair request you to help them make sense of their situation. Felted pocket forms reveal tactile complexities that invite your fingers to explore. Visceral compositions of the observed world want to know if they are “doing it right?”. Tableaus where origins feel undetermined and uncertain reflect back anxieties while also finding a place to finally exist, in a time unknown. I construct with a cocktail of skills derived from multiple sources including my bio & adoptive families which provides form to an otherwise formless life. In this work I find a life line in the void, a construct where I belong even if it’s nowhere.