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Biography
Working in both paint and social sculpture, Seattle artist Kate Vrijmoet uses the tools of classical painting to create high-impact experiences for her audience—experiences associated more with theatre. She is known best for both her large-scale water paintings and her life paintings, The Accident Painting series.
The social sculpture she creates are real-time exchanges between people to heighten consciousness with ourselves and others. “My role is to facilitate deep connections among us through art. In my work I am engaged in a highly energetic conversation with my audience and reflect that in the way I capture my subjects—deconstructing the figure, and finding rhythm in form.”
Painter, curator and social practice artist Kate Vrijmoet received her MFA from Syracuse University. Her paintings and installations focus on issues of consciousness, privilege, scale and access.
Vrijmoet was one of 16 American artists participating in the 2012 5th Beijing International Biennial. Vrijmoet has exhibited in shows juried by curators of the MOMA (Paulina Pobocha), the Met (Anne Strauss), the Guggenheim (Nat Trotman), and the Brooklyn Museum of Art (Charlotta Kotik). She received a top Prize in 2010 Ecuador Biennial. Her work has been published in the books Creative Practices for Visual Artists by Kenneth Steinbach, and Ufora, New American Paintings, The Seattle Times, Catapult Magazine and Professional Artist Magazine, as well as in numerous catalogs including her CoCA Seattle solo exhibit catalog: Kate Vrijmoet: Essential Gestures, Uforafest, The Richard Siken Project, and more. She has received several Grants. In 2016, Vrijmoet collaborated on a short film project through a grant from the Miami Foundation, Young Arts Alumni Foundation. In 2017 the film, Variations on Breathing, went on to win 6 awards and was selected for 13 national and international film festivals including Cannes, and Cannes Animaze Daze.
Vrijmoet has curated, and facilitated multiple exhibits for Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) while she served on the board of CoCA from 2016-2018 and as Board Chair in 2017-2018: Art ? Math-which later traveled to the Schack Art Center, and Painters Who Fucking Know How to Paint. In 2018, Vrijmoet served on a Community Incubator Team (Think Tank) with other community leaders and electeds who convened to work on the creation of a more sustainable arts culture in the PNW. Vrijmoet completed a 2-year certificate program in the principles of adaptive leadership through Leadership Eastside from Saybrook University in 2018.
Vrijmoet currently lives and works in Chicago, IL where she is working on a long-term Placemaking in Art project, combining her installation, social practice work, and leadership development with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program. Learn more at: www.katevrijmoet.com and at www.necessary-coffee.com
Studio Panoramic
My studio in panoramic High-Res Virtual Reality By Bradford Bohonus, part of Bohonus' Artists in Their Studios Project