Katie Holten

Installation view of 'A New Universe' by Katie Holten, 2005

New York Trees, 2004
Pencil on paper
22 x 20 inches

Venice Biennale, 2003
Representing Ireland with new specific work: 'Laboratorio della Vigna'

 

Installation view of 'It started on the C-train', 2002

Katie Holten about her work

During the last seven years Katie Holten has developed a unique visual language and an interdisciplinary arts practice that incorporates drawing, installation, temporary public art projects, sound and living plants. Her career has always been peripatetic as she travels constantly to produce and present her work in situ. Collaborative projects have proven to be a valuable and exciting way for her to develop relevant works. For example she represented Ireland at the 50th Venice Biennale with a project that transformed the Irish Pavilion into a meeting place and workshop for local residents. The exhibition extended beyond the confines of a gallery space through her facilitation of the production of new works by other artists, writers, and musicians.

Based on themes of permanence, disappearance and environment, my artworks reflect the vulnerabilities implicit in everyday life. I am concerned with how people make sense of and cope with their surroundings. Research, investigation, notes and drawing are fundamental to my practice as I make use of studies in Geography, Botanty, Architecture, and Urban Sociology to create works that contribute to an awareness of place and environement. In this sense my work creates a strangely familiar topography, which is often ambigious in nature and on closer inspection refutes a more detailed reading. Examples would be my public art works with transplanted weeds taken from city streets and presented in incongruous settings such as galleries and public parks. On a more stubtle level my works also explore the discontinuity between ideals and realities.

Biography

Katie Holten (born in Dublin in 1975) represented Ireland at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003). Her interdisciplinary arts practice incorporates drawing, installation, temporary public art projects and living plants. She has exhibited extensively in museums and galleries worldwide including the Akademie der Künst, Berlin (2004); 1st Prague Biennale (2003); W139 Amsterdam (2003); Musee d’Art Contemporaine, Geneva (2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2002); City Lights, Melbourne (2004); Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi (2004); Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam (2000); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (1999).
Forthcoming projects include a solo exhibition at Van Horn Gallery, Düsseldorf; Perennial, public art project, New York and Printed Project for the Irish Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale. Katie is also developing a public art project for the Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, Missouri for 2006.

Currently she lives in New York City where she is undertaking independent research as a Fulbright Scholar.