Kathryn Kenworth

Artist Statement:

I use everyday materials to explore place, ecology, and themes of re-use. Discarded materials like cardboard, paper or twigs are recycled into pieces that highlight the lifecycle of objects and extend a sense of community. I play with scale as a way to create experiences of displacement while drawing attention to how we discover and understand a location. Stacks of discarded boxes might become a mountain range yet, at the same time, retain a sense of smallness. Shifting scale draws attention to the ways in which we use our bodies to understand an environment while reconsidering what is familiar. Objects that often go unnoticed such as cars, sidewalks, boxes or trees are contextualized to bring interest to things that are often overlooked. For example, a beat-up truck filled with cardboard on its way to the recycling center reveals connections to a larger system of reclamation and the urban community. This type of interaction is at the center of my work, an engagement and reassessment of environment that invites people to see what is forgotten or de-valued. Bringing peripheral items, events or circumstances into focus allows for rediscovery of detail and new understanding of objects and place.

Kathryn Kenworth is a sculpture and installation artist newly working the area of social practice artworks. Her recent work includes collaborative pieces that focus on community practice and person-to-person exchange. Her project Non*Mart (2009-present) is an ongoing social experiment that offers alternatives to consumer culture by encouraging the re-use of materials and promoting trade-based exchange.

As a resident artist at Au Bout du Plongeoir, Rennes FRANCE (2009), Kathryn worked with the members of Theatre a l'Envers to create a interactive public installation. She continues to work with this theater group to develop similar performance pieces. In Spring 2010 they presented a mobile performance in California that used an SUV as a makeshift amphitheater and stage.

Kathryn has additionally been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough NH (2008), Bundanon, New South Wales, Australia (2005),and Sculpture Space, Utica NY (2002). From 2003-2005 she was an affiliate artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito CA. 

Kathryn graduated with an Masters of Fine Arts in sculpture from Mills College in 1999. She has shown her work in California at Southern Exposure Gallery (San Francisco, CA), The Lab (San Francisco CA), SOAP Gallery (San Francisco CA) and Kala Art Institute (Berkeley, CA) among others.  Additionally, she has shown her work in New York and New Hampshire - solo exhibition at the Alexander Studio (Peterborough, NH) 2008; and Australia at the Bundanon Trust, New South Wales - solo exhibition 2005.

Kathryn has been awarded generous grants from Theatre a l'Envers, Rennes France (2009-2010), the Leon Levy Foundation, NY (2008), the Pollock-Krasner foundation, NY (2005), and the Bay Area Video Coalition (2002).

Kathryn lives and works in Oakland, California.