Statement
Artist’s Statement
Leaning into my Appalachian roots and formal training as a painter, I make tactile objects that employ beading, weaving, and sewing techniques that utilize saturated color and atypical materials. My work is influenced by the “Eccentric Abstraction” movement defined as artworks engaging non-objective abstraction while using idiosyncratic, organic forms, materials that appear to be malleable and pliable, craft-based techniques, and often incorporates themes of gender and sexuality. My artistic practice takes place in public spaces through site-specific installations and in my studio where I create sculptures, weavings, drawings and paintings. I construct this visual world with forms and compositions that convey a sense of momentum, direction, and presence. This work rejects our machine and technology-based culture and is instead infatuated with and dedicated to the beauty of human touch and physical materials.
Biography
Katherine Daniels' beaded sculptures, weavings, and site-specific installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally, including throughout New York City, at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ and in "To Weave Dreams", at Miniartextil, Le Bellfroi Art Center in Montrouge, France. Her awards include a 2023 Artist Empowerment Award presented by Evercore and CUE Art Foundation, Puffin Foundation Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in painting, the Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award for Public Art, two Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Manhattan Creative Communities Grants, and selection as a participant in the Bronx Museum's “Artist in the Marketplace”. She has also received studio grants from the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation. PS 122, the Henry Street Settlement, and ChaShaMa. Daniels earned a B.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design and a M.F.A. from Northern Vermont State College in Vermont. Born in Idar Oberstien Germany, she was raised in Huntington, West Virginia and currently lives and works in New York City.
