Katie Bell, I Wanted You To Open Me
Exhibition • Through Saturday, January 4, 2025
Gallery hours
Saturday, December 14, 11am-3pm
Saturday, December 21, 11am-3pm
Saturday, December 28, 11am-3pm
Friday, January 3, 6–9pm – Artist’s Reception
Saturday, January 4, 11am-3pm – Last Look
Artist’s Statement
“I am enamored by the atmosphere of clubs: spaces that feel grimy, deafening, and lit by neon lights. Sweating bodies are pushed together, forcing intimacy despite the anonymity offered by these spaces. The recurring figure in my work is always seen alone, caught in a moment of privacy. Through this figure, I think about fleeting feelings like desire, despair, but also mischief and elation. I start my paintings by generating footage of myself dancing in a staged environment, incorporating strobe lights and a green screen. The videos that are created in this process eventually become important as their own works that I also think of as paintings. Color emerges as the most prominent element of the paintings, pushing and pulling the boundaries of the figure and disorienting the space she inhabits. I am invested in the task of pulling light and glow from dirty and muddy paint. I want my work not to be bright, but rather to glow from within.” – Katie Bell, 2024
About the Artist
Katie Bell (b. 1997) is a painter, animator, and writer based in Fairfield, Iowa. She received her MA in Studio Art at Maharishi International University in 2024 and her BA in Studio Art at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas in 2020. She has attended residencies and workshops such as Anderson Ranch Art Center and the Sou’wester. Her work has been shown in Iowa, Chicago, and Arkansas.
Katie also curates and hosts shows out of her own studio space in Iowa. She is currently most excited about curating two person shows as it feels like there are infinite ways to weave two people’s work together while still working within parameters. Curating also helps her think about her own work in fresh and interesting ways.