BIO

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Kate Barbee currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, receiving her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017. Her interdisciplinary repertoire, which spans from hand-embroidered mixed media paintings, collages, and drawings, is a testament to her versatility. Each creation is a narrative, probing the fluid, adaptive nature of identity in the presence of ever-changing environments; Texas, Los Angeles, Paris and now New York.

To gaze upon her large scale paintings is to be invited into a dialogue through windows of embroidered symbols and locations.
Her subjects push and pull through a fractured composition— intimately spaced and dynamically posed, creating an energy and rhythm which forces the eye on a nonlinear journey throughout the canvas. Barbee’s figures reveal themselves slowly as they emerge from the tactile, multi-hued, collaged, and textile-laden canvases which they populate. Her works harness an exceptional degree of emotional and figurative distortion. And every painting is a snapshot of the self, posing to the viewer poignant questions about the fluidity of selfhood in a world of changing spaces.

 

 

 

 

Shows

 

2023

People of the Otherworld: Ken Kiff in Dialogue, Albertz Benda, Curated by Kathy Battista, New York, NY, July 13, 2023 - August 11, 2023

Chicago EXPO with Kohn Gallery, April 2023

Considering Female Abstractions, Greene Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX, February 11 - May 21, 2023

 

2022

Art Basel with Kohn Gallery, Miami, FL -  December 2022

Home/Work at San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, Curated by Emma Saperstein, San Luis Obispo, CA - November 19, 2022 

Armory Art Fair with Kohn Gallery, New York, NY - September 2022

Auction for the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles - August 2022

 

2021

Miami Basel with Kohn Gallery, Miami, FL -  December 2021

Armory Art Fair with Kohn Gallery, New York, NY -   September 2021

Frieze Art Fair with Kohn Gallery, New York, NY -  May 2021

Feral Flora, Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA -  February 2021 - March 2021 

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2020

Art Basel with Kohn Gallery, Miami FL  - September 2020

myselves, group show at Kohn Gallery curated by Joshua Friedman, Los Angeles, CA - September 2020

Frieze Art Fair with Kohn Gallery, New York, NY  - June 2020

Armory Fair with Kohn Gallery, New York, NY - March 2020

Wyld Classic, group show at O-Project Space - February - March 2020

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2019

HYGIENE & OTHER SURPLUS, group show at GalleryALSO, curated by Kate Barbee - November 2019

Sweet Primal Things, group show at James Wright Gallery, Los Angeles, CA - November 2019

Labyrinth of Language, group show at WerkArtz, Los Angeles, CA - October 2019

DICE THEORY, group show at UQBAR Gallery, Berlin - June 2019

Sensible Ecstasy, group show at GalleryALSO Los Angeles, CA,  curated by Kate Barbee - April 2019

Like a Wet Braid, group show at GalleryALSO, curated by Easton Miller - January 2019

Grab Bag Studio Art Fair at Herenowlosangeles, Los Angeles, CA - January 2019

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2018

Papercuts, group show at Saatchi Gallery curated by Kristian Day, London - November 2018

Second Glimpses & Alternate Forms at The Golden Gate Parlor  June 2018

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2017

Group Show at Visual Arts Center at UT Austin, Austin, TX - March - April 2017

PLAYGROUNDS, group show at Co-Lab Gallery, Austin, TX - October 2017

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2016

Group show, Activation Gallery, Austin, TX - August - October 2016

Group show, Dollhouse Space, Chicago, IL - March 2016

 

Collections 

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Soho Warehouse Collection, New York, NY

Hill Art Foundation, New York, NY 

Andrew Xue Collection, Singapore 

Danjuma Collection, London, UK

 

Residencies 

 

Bed Stuy Art Residency in Bed Stuy, NY - May 2022 - June 2022

Bed Stuy Art Residency in Bed Stuy, NY September 1, 2021 - October 1, 2021 

 

 

Bibliography 

 

2023

Nicole Bray, "Artists to Watch" Mercer Contemporary, June 19

Caroline Perkins, "Abstraction in Dallas" Artsy, April 6

 

2021

Juan Marti Serrano, “The Endless Spring of Kate Barbee,” ODDA Magazine - May 12 

Lita Barrie, “Kate Barbee’s Feral Flora at Kohn Gallery,” Whitehot Magazine - March 25

Sydney Walters, “Feral Flora by Kate Barbee”, Art and Cake - March

“Here Are 6 Artists in the Artnet Gallery Network That We’re Watching This March,” Artnet - March 

Lindsay Preston Zappas, “Art Insider: These Pseudo-Cubist works stitch together ‘failed paintings,” KCRW - February 

Joshen Mantai, “Kate Barbee | Debut Exhibition ‘Feral Flora’ Opening at Kohn Gallery,” Flaunt - February 

David Alarón, “Making Sense of the World,” Metal Magazine - February 

 

2020

Sydney Walters, “myselves at Kohn Gallery,” Art and Cake, October 6

Cristina Samper, “Exploring Selfhood through Medium at Kohn Gallery, LA,” Art of Choice, September 26

Margaux Bang, “27 Emerging Artists Reflect on the Impacts of Isolation on Selfhood and Community,” L’Officiel, September 14

Barry Samaha, “State of the Art Industry in the Time of Coronavirus,” Harper’s Bazaar, May 7 

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To get in touch please email Katebarbeeart@gmail.com

Instagram: @Katebarbeee

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