Wednesday, October 31 @ 5 – 6:15p
Birge Hall 145, 430 Lincoln Dr
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Catarina Leitão (Stuttgart, 1970) is an artist working in drawing, sculpture, installation, and artist books. Leitão has exhibited her work at P.S.1/MoMA, the Aldrich museum, Connecticut, Socrates Sculpture Park, Wavehill, Glyndor Gallery and Grounds, Andrea Rosen Gallery, the Bronx Museum, Pedro Cera Gallery, Carlos Carvalho Contemporary Art, among others. She had solo museum shows at the Berardo Collection, Sintra, and Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon, Portugal. Awards and residencies include The New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, 2009, Center for Book Arts, 2007, The Triangle Arts Residency, 2006, Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, 2004, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, 2003, and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2001, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and Fundação Luso-Americana, 1997-1999. Catarina Leitão has an MFA from Hunter College (2000), and a Painting degree by the University of Lisbon, Portugal (1993).
In my artwork I investigate the spatial possibilities of drawing. I render relationships between two-dimensional and three-dimensional space, with a special focus on structures and objects that collapse/expand, fold/unfold, and that are portable when closed. Intertwined with this research, I reflect on our relationship with nature and what we define as such, in an increasingly manipulated and constructed environment, conditioned by culture. I build portable and nomadic structures that can acquire several configurations and adapt to different spaces and places. Working in a variety of formats such as large size installations, works on paper, books or fabric works, I incorporate into the work’s narrative the potential of each piece to be manipulated and transformed. catarinaleitao.net