KATE BARBEE
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
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2024
Artistic Noise Donation Auction at Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY May 2024
Looking through the window, Keijser Konig, Dallas, TX May 2024
Dallas Art Fair with Keijser Konig, Dallas, TX April 2024
The Hour of the Star, solo show with Sargent's Daughters, New York, NY - March 2024 - April 2024
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2023
Donation to Two x Two Auction for amFAR, The Foundation for Aids Research October 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
Green Family Foundation, Dallas, TX
Andrew Xue Collection, Singapore
Danjuma Collection, London, UK
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Residencies
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The Ora Lerman Charitable Trust - Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat May 2024 - June 2024
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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