Cicelia Ross-Gotta

Cicelia Ross-Gotta investigates the role that vulnerability plays within her familial relationships through quieter fibers-based installation, sculpture and interactive events. Her works explore a sense of vulnerability through soft, delicate materials and the audience’s participatory role. With fine threads and subtle textures, she invites the viewer to stay sensitive. Not to simply look harder, but to look well -try to see just this one thing well.

Originally from Kansas, Cicelia earned her BFA from Colorado State University in 2015 and her MFA from the University of Washington in 2017. Her recent exhibitions include the Vestibule and Henry galleries in Seattle, the Seattle Art Museum Sculpture Park, and Gramma Poetry Press. Her installation, I Love You Are You Okay, 2017, was featured in the 2018 Surface Design Journal International Exhibition in Print.

What objects and what actions make home? Is someone who lives in temporary housing still homeless? In light of her father’s temporary-permanent residence at a motel, Cicelia received 2018 GAP Award funding to explore these questions through the medium of a handmade quilt made from materials sourced from a motel.