Artist's Statement

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My slow cumulative working process usually begins with a single image or line of text.
It can feel like fumbling in the dark with each day’s work an act of faith that the whole thing will eventually make some kind of sense.  Gradually a pattern emerges, in the piece as well as in the working process.

Inspiration comes from the experience of engaging with mechanisms for accumulating knowledge (measuring, recording, comparing), especially knowledge of the natural world. Thinking about what we decide is and is not important. What are we leaving out – not bothering to collect or consider-what are the shapes/patterns that these negative spaces – gaps in knowledge – might make?

My work is based in drawing- often drawing ink applied with a brush over graphite on paper or found printed matter - and continues to include text - some-times as a sub-layer, sometimes as phrases or lists in artists’ books sometimes as ambiguous letter shapes.

Use of digital processes continues to provide new opportunities for playing with scale, transparency and connection - especially in combination with low tech manipulation of materials.

Right now I am working on a series of installations, Always and Everywhere.

This work creates new patterns and structures using nature guides, library furniture
and existing writing as raw material. It reflects the process of knowledge accumulation in its cumulative artistic processes. This work delights in the tangible physical  presence of materials such as shiny thread, transparent drawing ink and the edges of paper - softened by the touch of many fingers - paging through cards in a drawer.

Despite the use of text and references to facts, this work is not about offering answers.
This work is about careful observation. It is about remaining open to ambiguous possibilities.

It is about seeking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kate Kern, Visual Artist
Resumé

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SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Always and Everywhere Drawings and installations Springfield Museum of Art; Springfield, Ohio 2007
Seen and Unseen Drawings 1997-2002, Miami University Art Museum; Oxford, Ohio 2002
Making Clean House Art and Music Dept, Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library; Cincinnati, Ohio 2002
Following Instructions Project Room, Linda Schwartz Gallery; Cincinnati, Ohio 2001
Attract Year Round Beauty Drawings and Bookworks
Weston Art Gallery, Aronoff Center for the Arts; Cincinnati, Ohio 1999
Watch for the Unnatural Drawings and Bookworks
Health Sciences Library Gallery, University of Cincinnati Medical Center; Cincinnati, Ohio 1997
Reference Room Drawings, Bookworks, Mixed Media; Southern Ohio Museum; Portsmouth, Ohio 1994
Blood Dress Glory Drawings 1986-92, Earlham College; Richmond, Indiana 1992
Garden Stories Bookworks and Installations, Trumbull Gallery; Warren, Ohio 1991
The Legion of Courage North Light Gallery, Carnegie Art Center; Covington, Kentucky 1985
                                               
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
The Essence of a Thing Weston Art Gallery; Cincinnati, OH 2007
Bookstore Group Exhibition AG Gallery; Brooklyn, NY 2006
New Master Drawings curated by Kathryn Wat, Akron Art Museum , at Canton Museum of Art; Canton, OH 2005*
WordArt University of Cincinnati Galleries on Sycamore; Cincinnati, OH 2005
Ideas into Objects: Reinterpreting the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci Weston Art Gallery; Cincinnati OH 2005
Mining the Lloyd: Artists Reveal Secrets and Treasures from the Lloyd Lloyd Library and Museum;
Cincinnati, OH 2003-04*
Insomnia-Landscapes of the Night National Museum of Women in the Arts; Washington DC 2003*
Bright Hill Press National Book Arts Exhibition Bright Hill Center, Treadwell; NY 2002
Built by Hand: the Book as Art Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space; Washington DC 2002
Small Works II+III Linda Schwartz Gallery; Cincinnati, OH 2001, 2002
Paper Routes  Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH 2001,Southern Ohio Museum, Portsmouth, OH; Olin Art Gallery, Kenyon College, OH and Wooster College Art Museum, Wooster, OH 2000*
Cincinnati Book Works Main Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County 2000, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06
Reading Artists' Books Art and Music Dept, Main Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County 2000
Passion Works Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University; Athens, OH 1999
Summerfair Select Carnegie Arts Center; Covington, Kentucky 1998*
Booked: Contemporary Artist Books Chidlaw Gallery, Cincinnati Art Academy; Cincinnati, OH 1998
Eee-motional   DePaul University Art Gallery; Chicago, IL 1997
Advice Dresses Artists and Writers, Springfield Museum of Art; Springfield, OH 1996
Notre Dame College of Ohio, Cleveland, OH 1996
Bookmakers Sandusky Art and Cultural Center, Sandusky, OH 1994
Sight-Insight   Southern Ohio Museum 1993
New Abstractions Carnegie Art Center 1992
Statements in Black and White SPACES; Cleveland, OH 1991
Boundless Vision: Contemporary Bookworks San Antonio Art Institute; San Antonio, TX 1991
We, Too, Have Been There Artists Book Exhibition. Dayton Art Institute; Dayton, OH 1991
ASK/PAY -Art in the Windows Project Sponsored by C.A.G.E. (Cincinnati Artists Group Effort); Cincinnati, OH
Bound in the USA- An American Book Show Evanston Art Center; Evanston, IL 1989
American Drawing Biennial Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary; Williamsburg, VA 1989
A New Generation of Ohio Artists School of Art Gallery, Kent State University; Kent, OH 1987
Right in Our Own Backyard Group Installation Commemorating 40th Anniversary of Hiroshima Bombing
Fernald Nuclear Processing Plant; Fernald, OH 1985
Atomic Art (Art that Confronts the Bomb) Works from Fernald Installation, Arcade Gallery; Dayton, OH 1985
The Arms Show C.A.G.E.; Cincinnati, OH 1984*
*Exhibitions that include catalogs             

AWARDS AND HONORS
Finalist, 4th Floor Biennial Award, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH 2009
CBAS (Cincinnati Book Arts Society) Award of Excellence 2003
Artists Project Grant, Ohio Arts Council (OAC) FY2000, FY 2003
Summerfair Aid to Individual Artist Grant  Summerfair, Inc. Cincinnati, Ohio FY1996
City of Cincinnati Individual Artist Project Grant FY1997, FY2000, FY2002
Arts Midwest/NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship Award FY 1991
Individual Artist Fellowship OAC FY1991
Professional Development Assistant Award - OAC FY 1986
Artist in Residence Arts Learning Program, OAC1982-2000 2005-ongoing

 SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Akron Art Museum Akron, Ohio
Artist Book Collection - Art and Music Library, Ohio State University; Columbus, OH
Artist Book Collection - College of Design, Art and Architecture Library, University of Cincinnati; Cincinnati, OH
Artists’ Book Collection - Brown University; Providence, RI
Artists’ Book Collection - Cincinnati Art Museum Library; Cincinnati, OH
Artists’ Book Collection - Library Research Center - National Museum for Women in the Arts; Washington D.C.
Artists’ Book Collection - The Museum of Contemporary Art; Chicago, IL
Artists’ Books Collection- Cincinnati/Hamilton County Main Public Library; Cincinnati, OH
Artists’ Books Collection - Gund Library – Cleveland Institute of Art; Cleveland, OH
Artists’ Book Collection – Hunt Library, Carnegie Mellon University; Pittsburgh, PA
Artists’ Books Collection – Indiana University; Bloomington, IN
Bruce Peel Special Collections Library – University of Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
The Getty Research Institute - Los Angeles, CA
Holman Library - McKendree College; Lebanon, IL
Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection- Flaxman Library, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Museum of Modern Art/Franklin Furnace/Artist Book Collection-Library, the Museum of Modern Art; NYC
Robert Shiffler Collection - Greenville, OH
Special Collections - Alden Library, Ohio University; Athens, OH
Special Collections – Charles E. Shain Library, Connecticut College; New London, CT
Special Collections – Kent State University Libraries; Kent, OH

PUBLISHED ARTISTS' BOOKS
Hambone’s Lament- self published, open edition, inkjet pages in wire-coil binding- foil stamped title on cover-2007
Clean House Clean Mind Anthology- Letterpress printed by Ars Brevis Press, self-published- edition of 50 2002
Mother’s Day - Self-published offset edition of 2500, single-sheet artist publication 2000
Glove Index - Offset edition of 500 Published by Sara Ranchouse Publishing, Chicago, Illinois 1999
Instructions -Letterpress printed by Yellow Ochre Press, hardbound -self published- edition of 100 1997

APPOINTMENTS
Member and co-chair – Public Art Committee, Cincinnati Recreation Commission advisory body- 2005-2007
Member – Cincinnati Arts Allocation Committee- City of Cincinnati advisory body- evaluates competitive arts grant applications (from individuals and small arts organizations) Appointed by the mayor of Cincinnati. 2003-ongoiing

EDUCATION
MFA Drawing 1981 School of Art, University of Cincinnati; Cincinnati, OH
BFA 1979 Department of Fine Art, University of Dayton; Dayton, OH

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