Artist Statement
November 2008
Since 2000, I have been making large scale installations made mainly of textile materials. I see these installations as drawings in space with a prevailing sense of line and color. Integral to the work is the idea of sprawl, as in makeshift, proliferating growth. The use of commonplace craft materials (such as pipe cleaners and yarn) and discarded household materials (such as dry cleaning bags and fruit nets) also help to give the work a provisional quality. Through a labor-intensive process, patches of fabric and plastic are sewn or pinned to structures made of pipe cleaners and wire. In my room-sized installation, Whorl, most of the sections that made up the work were abstract and cellular, while some forms vaguely referred to architectural structures, domestic objects, and marine biology.
Ideas of permeable and mobile architecture were important in my site-specific installation, Patch, which was shown at Suyama Space in Seattle. Four tent-like structures in green, red, yellow/white, and blue were suspended from the twenty-two foot high ceiling with strands of pipe cleaners and yarn and weighted to the floor with lead weights. One could enter each of the structures and, while being immersed, peer out through permeable walls. Because of the patchy and translucent nature of the walls, multi-layered views of the rest of the installation were alternately obscured and revealed.
For the Powel House in Philadelphia, I created Keeping It Under Wraps, which included several works (Curtain, Closet, Bed, Bookend) that responded to the interior design and architecture of this 18th century Georgian-style house, as well as a small piece of tatting made in 1753 by Samuel Powell's sister, Martha. With the installation, it was my intention to make something that both mirrored and transformed Martha's obsessive, tiny piece of tatting-- allowing it, in a sense, to seep outward and 'run riot' amidst the solemn symmetry of the house's architecture.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, Master of Fine Arts, 2001Brown University, Providence, RI, B.A. Visual Arts (Honors), 1989
Selected Solo Exhibitions
New Work, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA; April - May 2009 (forthcoming)Layer City, The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE; Feb. - May 2009 (forthcoming)
Solo Series 2008, The Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, PA; March - April 2008
Keeping It Under Wraps, The Powel House: Landmarks Contemporary Projects, Philadelphia, PA; March 2008
Patch, Suyama Space, Seattle, WA; May 2007
Whorl, Galerie Articule, Montréal, Quebec; January 2006
Summer Solos, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center; Atlanta, GA, June 2005
New Work, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA; March 2003
New Work, Mendel Music Library of Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; January 2003
Dressbodies, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta; May 1999
Better Sight Without Glasses, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta; January 1997
Eve Tree, Art in Odd Places, Arts Festival of Atlanta; Summer 1996
Selected Group Exhibitions
In Suspension, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; July 2008Hovering Above, The Abington Art Center Sculpture Park, Jenkintown, PA; June-November 2008
Matter, SPACE Gallery, Portland, ME; January-February 2008
The Hearing Eye, Centre Clark, Montréal, Quebec; March 2007 (traveling exhibition: Gallery 101, Ottawa, Ontario, April 2007, L'Oeil De Poisson, Quebec City, Quebec, May 2008)
Strands of Fabrication, Fe Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA; April 2004
Running Rampant, Fe Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA; February 2004
Projects, Islip Art Museum, Carriage House, East Islip, NY; August 2003
Personal Perspectives: The Center for Print and Paper Fellowship Exhibition,
Mason Gross School for the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; Jan. 2003
100 New Jersey Artists Make Prints, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ (traveling exhibition, 2002-04,
The Morris Museum, The Noyes Museum of Art, The Corcoran Gallery and School, Lamar Dodd School of Art (UGA),
University of Iowa Museum, Purdue University Galleries, Tweed Museum, Whitman College)
Awards
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2008-09Creative Capital Foundation Grant in Visual Arts, 2005
Sculpture Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, 2003
New Jersey Print and Paper Fellowship, Brodsky Center for Innovative Print and Paper, New Brunswick, NJ; 2002
Hilla Rebay Teaching Artist Award, The Guggenheim Museum Children's Program, 2001
Artist Lectures
The Abington Art Center, Public Lecture, Jenkintown, PA; March 2008Brown University, Lecture and critiques for junior and senior art students, Providence, RI; February 2008
Suyama Space, Public Lecture, Seattle, WA; May 2007
Galerie Articule, Public Lecture, Montréal, Quebec; January 2006
The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Public Lecture, Atlanta, GA; May 2006
Selected Catalogues
Patch: An Installation by Caroline Lathan-Stiefel, Essays by Helena Reckitt and Beth Sellars,Suyama Space, Seattle, WA; 2007
L'Oreille Dans L'oeil/The Hearing Eye, Essays by Sébastien Cliche and Jesse Lacayo,
Centre Clark, Montréal, Quebec and Gallery 101, Ottawa, Ontario; 2007
Immersion/Immersive: Exploring the Immersive in Contemporary Art Practice,
Essays by Marcus Miller, Susie Major, and Randall Anderson, Articule, Montréal, Quebec; 2006
Reviews
Fall 2008, Young Approaches: Crossing/Crossing Out Categories, Warren Seelig, Surface Design Journal, p. 10.March 23, 2008, Review: Abington Art Center, Victoria Donohoe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, p. L10.
New Year 2008, Caroline Lathan-Stiefel, R. Asher, artUS, p. 63. (LINK)
March, 23, 2008, Art Review, Victoria Donohoe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, p. L10.
July 2007, art ltd.: West Coast Art + Design, Pulse, p. 89.
May 24, 2007, Trash, Death, Mantle: Three New Shows Reviewed, Jen Graves, The Stranger, p. 20.
May 8, 2007, Intricate Netting, Adriana Grant, Seattle Weekly, p. 31.
May 18, 2007, There's an unsettling beauty to Lathan-Stiefel's Patch, Nate Lippens, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p. 36.
December 14, 2007, 2006-YR-Visual, Isa Tousignant, Hour, Montréal, p. 21.
February 2, 2006, State of the Whorl, Isa Tousignant Hour, Montréal, p. 22.
December 14, 2006, Parasites et Pression, Mathieu Menard, Le Delit.
Royak, Jacqueline, In Review, Surface Design Journal, Spring, 2005, p. 52.
September/October 2004, Strands of Fabrication, Petra Fallaux, Fiberarts Magazine, p. 52.
May/June 2004, Running Rampant, Scott Turri, Dialogue Magazine, p. 52.
April 28, 2004, Getting More Fiber, Mary Thomas, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. C2.
April 22, 2004, Living in the Material World, Alice Winn, The Pittsburgh PULP, p. 15.
March 11, 2004, The Sprawl of the Wild, Kurt Shaw, The Pittsburgh Tribune Review, p. 9.
March 21, 2003, Caroline Lathan-Stiefel: New Work, Catherine Fox, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, p. Q6.
June, 5, 1999, Dress it up, Cathy Byrd, Creative Loafing, Atlanta, p. 40.
June 4, 1999, Changing faces, Catherine Fox, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, p. Q7.
May - June 1997, Review: Caroline Lathan-Stiefel, Cathy Byrd, Art Papers, p. 56.
February 14,1997, Mind's eye puts forth artist's vision, Catherine Fox, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, p. P3.
Collections
Hunterdon Museum, Clinton, NJMorris Museum, Morristown, NJ
Newark Library, Newark, NJ
Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ
Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ
New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Trenton, NJ
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
Zimmerli Museum, New Brunswick, NJ