Kathryn L Thibault

Katie Thibault was a resident artist at the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, Virginia, for four years before relocating with her family to Washington State. Her recent work reflects her continued investigation into the intersections of mechanical elements and references to the body and language, through wall installations, drawings, and sculptural apparatus for the body, exploring the disintegration of the distance between the physical and internal sense of self and external structures. She works across a number of mediums, including computer graphics, drawing, painting, glass, metal, and interactive and performative works. She has exhibited in commercial and university galleries in the US, Europe, and Canada and has received numerous grants, fellowships and awards. She holds a doctorate in media, art and text from Virginia Commonwealth University, and she received an MFA from Ohio State University, Columbus.

Katie received 2017 GAP Award funding for materials and childcare to support her while she prepares for a solo exhibition in March 2018 at the 4Culture Gallery, her first solo show in the Seattle area. For the exhibition, Katie intends to create a site-specific installation of ephemeral wall-based sculptures visually linked through references to the growth and interaction of natural organisms and mechanical structures. The individual pieces, akin to garden plots, will consist of vellum, glass, and mixed-media sculptural forms. While each section of the installation will have defined boundaries and a sense of internal order, some sections will bleed into others as if allowed to grow wild. The composition of the ‘plots’ will draw on data visualization concepts as an imperfect method to make sense of our fragmented experiences of the world. Through images of bodies, physical contacts, and mechanical elements, the components will allude to conflict, connection, and mortality.