“Let’s get lost together. Lost in thought, lost in a moment, lost in a visual puzzle. Let’s let go of the pressure to decide and know. Let’s let the present wash over us and for as long as possible sweep us away in color, line, and material. Let’s get lost in just being here together.”
“My paintings and drawings emphasize playful process. Painting is a negotiation of ideas and decisions taking physical shape: sometimes proud, lovely, or awkward and most often decidedly not heroic. The finished works serve as riddles meant for contemplation, not as vehicles for a singular message or conclusion.
My recent pieces use the material stuff of painting as structure. The paper and raw canvases warp and wrinkle based on how they are made—putting the process of becoming as much on display as the finished product. I like to keep the viewer constantly questioning, thoughtfully present, and even possibly a bit uncomfortable. The goal is to suspend the viewer in a state of active looking to create a prolonged experience where we get to—for a fleeting moment—set aside the notion of knowing and exist simply in a state of being.
” -Kate Van Steenhuyse
KATE VAN STEENHUYSE is a painter, educator, and arts administrator. She received her MFA (Fine Arts) in 2008 from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, and a BFA (Painting & Women's Studies) in 2001 from Washington University in St. Louis, Magna Cum Laude. Kate has exhibited nationally and internationally including exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, London, San Francisco, Wichita, Dallas and more.
In 2014 she, along with two collaborators, launched Harvester Arts, an experimental residency program in Wichita, KS which partners nationally recognized artists with local creatives. She was featured in New American Painting West Edition in 2011, and was a Fellow of The Career Development Program at The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, 2006 – 2008 in Philadelphia, PA. Kate is currently Executive Director of Harvester Arts, a Regional Consultant for the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, on the Board of Directors of the Mid-America Arts Alliance, and graduate faculty at Wichita State University. Kate lives and works in Wichita, KS.
EXHIBIT ENDS DEC. 22