Kate Clark (artist)

Kate Clark
Kate Clark at her installation, "What You Have Become" (Seattle Convention Center Summit Building, Seattle WA). Photo by Mel Kagerer, 2024
Born	1987 (age 37–38)
Alma mater	University of California San Diego, The Evergreen State College
Website	www.kateclarkprojects.com

Kate Clark (born 1987) is an American artist who works across public art, studio art, and installation. ^[1] Her public art has focused on the coexistence of life forms in locations such as tree trunks and city blocks through installations, experiential storytelling, urban studies, ethnography, and collaboration with communities including archaeologists and landscape designers. ^[2] Her work explores the evolving interpretations of old objects and their meanings. ^[3]

Early life

Clark grew up in Anacortes, Washington. ^[4] Through her parents receiving Fulbright Teaching grants as High School teachers, her family lived in Istanbul, Turkey in 1994-1995, and Brno, Czech Republic in 2003-2004, and was exposed to folklore and archaeological sites that informed her interest in local history and storytelling. While in Brno she studied at the Luzanky School of Art and the Studio Lavka photography studio.

Education

Clark went to Evergreen State College for a BA in Studio Arts, studying abroad at The Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art, Pont Aven, France. After graduating in 2009, she studied with master ink painter Tousui Tanaka in Tokyo, Japan.

Clark went to the University of California, San Diego for a Masters of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Public Art, graduating in 2017, studying abroad for an "Urbianisms of Inclusion" fellowship at Università Iuav di Venezia in Italy, and at an urban design and architecture school at Bauhaus University, Weimar.

Work

Kate Clark’s art work has involved storytelling practices, research, and engagement with landscape design, archaeology, urban studies, and sculpture, with projects at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution, the Bauhaus Institute Weimar, NgBK Berlin, ^[5] The Oakland Museum of California, Bellevue Arts Museum, The Olympic Sculpture Park, and 4Culture.

The themes of Clark’s sculptures have included reinterpreting gender representations in art history, and the morphing of the female form in sculpture, such as the Venus of Willendorf and the Virgin Mary, and exploring feminized crafts and techniques, such as the Nordic countries tradition of rose painting or rosemaling.

Parkeology

While Clark was working with the San Diego Art Institute, she organized “Parkeology,” collectively authored, community history projects and art installations at Balboa Park, "designed to uncover little-known aspects of the park’s places and institutions.” ^{[6] [7] [8]}

• “Queens Circle,” an oral history project, book, and museum installation focused on LGBTQ+ cruising culture at Balboa Park. ^{[9] [10] [11]}
• "Border Trolley Tours," a live storytelling tour between Balboa Park and the Mexico–United States border at San Ysidro and Tijuana, in collaboration with Cognate Collective and The Front Art e Cultura. The tour traced humans, animals, and materials that have migrated between San Diego, CA and Tijuana, MX. ^{[2] [12]}
• "Facing Artifacts," a live performance event at the San Diego Museum of Us that reinterpreted and interrogated the history of collecting live human face casts for anthropology research ^[13]
• "Organ for the Senses," with San Diego Art Institute, a series of performances of commissioned original musical compositions for the Spreckels Organ Pavilion exploring the properties of the organ, 2017 ^[14]

Public Art and Planning

Clark is an art commissioner for the Seattle Design Commission, and served as a Community Engagement Artist in Residence for Seattle Public Utilities and the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. ^[15] From 2021-2024, she developed a ten year public art plan for the electricity utility Seattle City Light. ^{[16] [17]}

Teaching

Clark has taught at the University of San Diego, George Washington University, and The Anacortes Museum and guest lectured at University of Chicago, Bauhaus University, Weimar, Bellevue Arts Museum, and University of California, San Diego.

Selected exhibitions

Solo shows

• "Cavity Creatures," Punch Gallery, Thorp, Washington, 2024 ^[3]
• "In Dust We Trust," San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA, 2016

Selected group shows

• “WILD LIFE,” Base Camp Studios II, Seattle WA, 2024
• “ReMix: Sculpture Park Tarot,” Seattle Art Museum, 2022 ^[18]
• “And We Will Sing in the Tall Grass Again,” The Front Art e Cultura, San Ysidra CA. 2022
• “Architecture & Urban Design Biennial,” Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue WA, 2021 ^[19]
• “Mira Mesa Community Art Week (with the AjA Project),” Mira Mesa, CA.
• “Working Title,” James by-the Sea Episcopal Church, La Jolla, CA, 2020
• “Queer California: Untold Stories,” Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA, 2019 ^[20]
• “Territorium,” Instituto Municipal de Arte y Cultura (IMAC), Tijuana, Mexico, 2019 ^[21]
• “A Show About Touching,” Bread & Salt and Art Produce, San Diego, CA, 2019
• “Being Here With You / Estando aquÌ contigo,” Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA, 2018 ^[11]
• "Skyjacking Above, Tunneling Below," nGbK. Berlin, Germany, 2017
• "A Border Peepshow," Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles, CA, 2017 ^[22]
• "Lives of Specimens," San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego CA, 2017
• "Border Film Week," Joan B. Croc School of Peace Studies Galleries, University of San Diego, 2016 ^[23]
• "Replica Real," Biomuseo. Panama City, Panama, 2015
• "Eyes As Sieves," Global Committee, Brooklyn, NY, 2015
• "NoExit:Postcard," OKK: Organ Kritishcer Kunst. Berlin, Germany, 2015
• "Pacific Standard Time Place and Practice Symposium," Tijuana, MX + San Diego, CA: Storylines TJ/SD, 2015
• “Fluid States,” Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Panama City, Panama, 2015

Selected publications

• Kate Clark and David Serlin. "Materializing Disability and Queerness in Three Objects". In, Turning Archival: The Life of the Historical in Queer Studies, (Eds.) Daniel Marshall and Zeb Tortorici, Date University Press, 2022 doi : 10.1515/9781478022589-012
• Queen’s Circle: Cruising Oral Histories of Balboa Park, Burn All Books Press, 2019 ^[10]
• Gwyneira Isaac; Kate Clark; Kelsey Adams; et al. (December 2, 2019). "Anthropology, Museums and the Body: Lessons From an Experimental Teaching Environment". Museum and Society. 17 (3): 472–493. doi:10.29311/MAS.V17I3.3413. ISSN   1479-8360. Wikidata   Q112157622.

Collections

• Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
• Seattle Convention Center ^[24]
• Seattle Parks Foundation ^[25]

References

1. Wilson, Gemma (December 19, 2023). "How objects unearthed beneath Seattle Convention Center became art". The Seattle Times.
2. Solaimani, Sara (June 8, 2017). "Border Trolley Tours Reveal the Contested History of San Diego-Tijuana Border". PBS SoCal. Retrieved February 23, 2025.
3. "Kate Clark - Cavity Creatures, October 2024". Punch Projects. Retrieved April 19, 2025.
4. Matlock, Wesley (May 12, 2023). "Getting to know Kate Clark, Artist in Residence". Powerlines - Seattle City Light (SCL). Retrieved February 23, 2025.
5. "Tunnel Below / Skyjacking Above - Deconstructing the Border". nGbK. Archived from the original on February 22, 2024. Retrieved April 13, 2025.
6. "Kate Clark digging up layers of the lesser-known". The San Diego Union Tribune. June 1, 2019. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025. Retrieved February 24, 2025.
7. "Parkeology at Balboa Park". UCSD Guardian. March 7, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2025.
8. Palmer, Margie (May 20, 2016). "When nudity was celebrated". San Diego News. Archived from the original on April 13, 2025. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
9. "Queen's Circle - Parkeology / Kate Clark". Emergency Index. 2017. Archived from the original on April 13, 2025. Retrieved April 13, 2025.
10. "Queens Circle". Parkeology. Archived from the original on April 21, 2025. Retrieved April 13, 2025.
11. Sayej, Nadja (October 1, 2018). "San Diego meets Tijuana: showing art from both sides of the border". The Guardian.
12. Stromberg, Matt (July 26, 2017). "A Peepshow Tracks the Shifting Border Between Mexico and the US". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
13. Schroeder, Lauryn (October 26, 2016). "Faces become artifacts at Museum of Man". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on April 12, 2025. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
14. "Organ for the Senses". San Diego Art Institute. Archived from the original on April 14, 2025. Retrieved April 14, 2025.
15. Davis, Brangien (November 11, 2021). "ArtSEA: What 1890s garbage says about today's Seattle". Cascade PBS. Retrieved February 23, 2025.
16. Lenahansen, Colleen (September 17, 2021). "Introducing Kate Clark, City Light's new Artist-in-Residence". Powerlines - Seattle City Lights (SCL). Retrieved February 23, 2025.
17. "Unveiling Seattle City Light's Public Art Plan". Seattle Art Beat - Office of Arts & Culture. May 6, 2024. Archived from the original on March 17, 2025. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
18. "Seattle Art Museum Sculpture Park Tarot". Kate Clark Projects. Archived from the original on April 21, 2025. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
19. Davis, Brangien (November 11, 2021). "ArtSEA: What 1890s garbage says about today's Seattle". Cascade PBS.
20. "Queer California: Untold Stories". Oakland Museum of California (OMCA). Archived from the original on September 13, 2024. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
21. "Territorium Tijuana - July 31 - September 22, 2019". TERRITORIUM. Archived from the original on February 6, 2025. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
22. "A Border Peepshow 2017". The Velaslavasa Panorama. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
23. "Border Film Week". University of San Diego News. Archived from the original on July 18, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
24. "Public Art - Permanent Collection". Seattle Convention Center. Retrieved February 23, 2025.
25. Grygiel, JiaYing (June 5, 2024). "New Pathways Park in Laurelhurst: Accessible and welcoming for all". Seattle Times. Retrieved April 21, 2025.

External links

• www.kateclarkprojects.com