Katherine Cox Knapp
Chicago, Ilinois
I am a modern realist painter working in oil. The primary concern of my art is to create a direct aesthetic experience for the audience.
MessageI began my education with an undergraduate degree in Russian Language and Literature and a number of fine arts classes on the side. This led to working in a non-profit arts organization for Russian artists in Washington D.C. and later spending a year hanging out with artists and collectors in Moscow, visiting artists in their studios and translating exhibition catalogues and critical essays about their work. I returned to school for a graduate degree in Russian Area Studies and later an M.F.A. in creative writing, after which I worked in Ukraine reorganizing collective farms into private businesses and wrote a novel (still unpublished) about Russian artists in Moscow.
In 2018 I returned to my pursuit of art, taking classes at a small studio in Chicago, run by a Serbian artist trained at Pratt in New York, where I have been working ever since. I have also taken a series of classes at one of the new online art schools. Soon after beginning classes I set up a studio in our basement and developing my practice has been my primary pursuit ever since.
Statement
In my work, I am concerned with the viewer’s direct aesthetic experience of a piece of art. I paint representational images in oil on canvas in formats from 12x14 to 36x48.
I use impasto, bold and unexpected color palettes, and dramatic compositions to lure the audience in and make it hard to look away. I seek to inspire joy, fascination, and delight, but also imbue the work with a darkness or awkwardness that makes the beauty that much more compelling.
In our age where social media has dropped a veil of self consciousness over our lives, I find an intense personal engagement with art all the more vital. With the constant presence of cameras in our pockets and friends and social media beckoning for new texts and posts, we are too often sifting through our experiences for curated, cropped, “instagramable” moments. We are distracted by our anticipation of other people’s reaction to what we see and do, reducing our ability to deeply, personally, and privately experience the world ourselves. My goal is art so mesmerizing, it circumvents that impulse.