Katherine Cox Knapp

Discover Katherine Cox Knapp's Artistic Vision

 

Artist Statement

Experience for Experience's Sake

 

I grew up an isolated child of preoccupied parents in a hilly, tree-lined neighborhood in the dusk of the steel mill era in Pittsburgh. I was an incredibly visual child, able to sit for long periods in the backyard looking at the trees, houses, and sky and be perfectly entertained. As a result, my work often has a voyeuristic feel, as if the viewer is lingering nearby, full of love and longing, but not really a part of things, creating an exquisite feeling of nostalgia, not for the past, but for what's happening right in front of you.

 

I often paint animals and landscapes, perhaps the most beautiful parts of the world, but ones that exist in a parallel realm to humans, a realm that we can observe, but never really enter. I'm also fascinated with painting people, the source of my greatest joys and torments, in this life. The characters in my paintings often have their eyes averted, focused on whatever they’re doing, not noticing whoever is watching nearby, giving a wonderful voyeuristic, eavesdropping feeling. 

I start with a loose gestural drawing in charcoal to work out the composition on the canvas. Then I start bringing in color, changing things often until I see what I like. Studies would no doubt save time, but I fear they would drain some of the energy from the final work. I like to feel the struggle play out on the canvas. I feel it adds history, strength, and complexity to the final work.

In the end, what I hope, is to both connect with the viewer and offer the viewer their own private connection with the art.

 

Bio

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Katherine Cox Knapp is a contemporary figurative and abstract painter living and working in Chicago, Il. Her work focuses on vulnerability, beauty, and nostalgia. Harkening back to the 19th Century movement, "Art for Art's Sake," she is interested in the direct aesthetic experience of a piece of art, that moment of interchange between a viewer and an art object being viewed, when each is acting on and influencing the other. She calls this, Experience for Experience's Sake. 

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She began her education with an undergraduate degree in Russian Literature and fine art. This led to her working in the nonprofit sector supporting Russian artists and later spending a year hanging out with artists and collectors in Moscow. She returned to school for an M.A. in Russian Studies and an M.F.A. in creative writing, after which she worked in Ukraine reorganizing collective farms into private businesses and wrote a novel about Russian artists in Moscow.
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​Her work has been exhibited in numerous Chicago venues including the Chicago Cultural Center, the Bridgeport Art Center, the Epiphany Center for the Arts, Zhou B Art Center, The Evanston Art Center, and the West Loop Contemporary Fine Art Expo.

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