Finding solidarity in deviants, drifters, and the overly sensitive, Katie Halton shares her stories of struggle through ultra-textured portraits. Her paintings on velvet combine simplified imagery and suggestive titling to create iconographical dialogue between her existentially weary characters and their audience, ultimately seeking reverence for the irreverent. Her recent work pays homage to the European and Asian tradition of painting on velvet. Fascinated by the irony of it all—velvet’s historical role in both high and low cultural operations—Halton applies the technique to her straightforward and seductive imagery, amplifying the dimensional components and creating a smoothness to the minimally rendered characters in this sensual nod to 1970’s kitsch.
Katie Halton received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016. She has received fellowships to the Ox-Bow and Vermont Studio Center residencies, completed a large mural commission from the City of Ann Arbor, a 14-piece church commission of Stations of the Cross, and exhibited at the Michigan State Capital Building. Halton was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and currently lives and works in Chicago.
Courtesy of Western Exhibitions
Works Available for Purchase
Interview with the Artist
RESIDENCIES
2014 VERMONT STUDIO CENTER, FULL FELLOWSHIP, JOHNSON, VT
2013 VERMONT STUDIO CENTER, PARTIAL FELLOWSHIP, JOHNSON, VT
2003 OX-BOW, FULL FELLOWSHIP, SAUGUTUCK, MI
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 SUPPLE LEOPARD, WESTERN EXHIBITIONS, CHICAGO, IL
2016 FEVER DREAMS, UNCLE ART GALLERY, CHICAGO, IL
2014 NEW WORK, UGLY MUG GALLERY, YPSILANTI, MI
2007 MICROVISIONS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, MI
AWARDS & HONORS
2016 EXPO CHICAGO, SAIC BOOTH CURATED BY EDRA SOTO, CHICAGO, IL
2014-16 SAIC ENRICHMENT SCHOLARSHIP AND GRANT, CHICAGO, IL
2012 ARTPRIZE PARTICIPANT, GRAND RAPIDS, MI
2012 HONORABLE MENTION AND PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, NORTHVILLE ART HOUSE JURIED EXHIBITION, NORTHVILLE, MI
2011 2ND PLACE, ANN ARBOR WOMEN ARTISTS JURIED EXHIBITION, ANN ARBOR, MI
2010 ART ON THE HOUSE, OFFICE OF REP. PAM BYRNES IN STATE CAPITAL BUILDING, LANSING, MI
2010 PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN ALUMNI SHOW, ANN ARBOR, MI
2010 HONORABLE MENTION, RIVER GALLERY JURIED EXHIBITION, CHELSEA, MI
2007 PIERPONT COMMONS JURIED COMPETITION WINNER, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, MI
2002 BARBARA & DOROTHY HEERS AWARD, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN, ANN ARBOR, MI
