Material contains the consciousness of nature. Nature is not a stable hierarchical system, it is full of improvisation and contingency. Whitehead put forward process philosophy based on the premise that being is dynamic and that the dynamic nature of being should be the primary focus of any comprehensive philosophical account of reality and our place within it. Both matter and mind are events. Events include time, matter and mind. Time includes the past, the present and the future.
Chicago, IL, USA
(e) krscasey100@gmail.com | (p) 630-808-5363
Studio: Carol Albany Arts Building | 319 N Albany, Chicago, IL
A work of art, like nature, is a magical creation.
I have always been fascinated with the material of paint, with the object of the brush, with the illusion of space, form, light and depth. I cannot take painting out of my personal history - at nearly every turn, painting lies deeply entangled in my own heterogeneous subjectivity. It is fascination and pleasure, yet it is also responsibility, longing and desire. And although my practice now incorporates different media and diverse visual resources, the fundamental aesthetic is that of the painter and the challenges of that medium.
I define my painting process as “Ecofeminist Action Painting”, a term which combines ecofeminism, feminist actionism and action painting. Working at a large scale, on unstretched canvas on the floor, the canvas becomes an arena for investigation and what accumulates on the surface acts as a record of an event, a moment, or what could be considered an “act of nature” . The goal is the depiction of matter as it takes on form spontaneously, or, allowing form to arise by way of inner impulse.
My concern lies in how we currently relate to nature and technology, how we think about it, what we imagine it to do. And so my work does a lot of things. It draws upon media aesthetics, philosophy of nature, science and technology studies and new material feminism. It questions our posthuman era of rapid biological and technological change. Incorporating painting, sculpture and new media, my practice explores the limits and tensions of these concerns and seeks to generate new modes of intervention that are accountable to their complex entanglement. Natural materials are combined with digital technologies to blur these seemingly oppositional distinctions, drawing attention to what’s at stake in the anthropocene.
The works incorporate natural and synthetic materials such as mushrooms, moss, glycerin, beeswax, plastic and resin. These materials are assembled, applied, removed and altered through a constant labor of consideration and revision. The resulting works are assemblages of natural and technological elements whereby the biological processes of mutation, contamination, decay, generation, emergence and metamorphosis serve as modes of inquiry. The digital work, made from photographs of my paintings in progress, uses digital processes of mediation, remediation, montage and manipulation to expose the convergence of our contemporary cultural binaries.
I follow the idea that material contains the consciousness of nature, where nature is not a stable and hierarchical system, but one full of improvisation and chance. I view technology as a kind of poiesis, a way of bringing forth or revealing. Its essence lies not in the production of goods or manipulation of materials, but in its capacity for revealing that which is not yet known. My work asks: What does technology reveal about nature? About ourselves? I always return to the relationship between nature and technology— a relationship that is dynamic, evolving and embedded in my process.
My ultimate belief is that art making is one crucial, critical method for expanding consciousness to the necessary amplitude for attaining a more harmonious relationship between nature and technology. This is where my mission as an artist resides, and where my absolute resolve to advance artistically is driven from. For it is by “working from within’ that I take the great leap, experimenting, challenging, and expanding my own consciousness through research and practice.
EDUCATION
❖ Phd (ABD), Philosophy, Art & Critical Thought, European Graduate School, Saas-fe, CH
❖ MA Letters, Art & Contemporary Thought (LAPC), Université Diderot Paris 7, Paris, France (with honors), Supervisor: Regis Salado
❖ MA Digital Media: Technology & Cultural Form (theory) | Goldsmiths College, London, UK (with merit), Supervisor: Sarah Kember
❖ BFA in Fine Art, Painting | Columbia College, Chicago, IL, USA (with honors) | Supervisor: Sabina Ott
PRESENTATIONS & PUBLICATIONS
Artist Talk: “Beginning Endless Forms: Feminist Actionism & Nature”, FEMeeting 2019 – Women in Art, Science and Technology. Portugal. May 30-June 5, 2019.
“On Kitsch in Nature & Technology: Redefining Kitsch for Posthuman Feminist Aesthetics”, The International Visual Culture Review, 2019. Volume 1, No 1. https://journals.epistemopolis.org/index.php/image/issue/view/202. Publication.
"Posthuman Painting: Aesthetics & Informatics", Art Teleported. Brooklyn, New York, sponsored by CICA Museum. January 4-5, 2019.
“On Kitsch in Nature & Technology,” 2017 Feminist Scholars Digital Workshop (FSDW), sponsored by HASTAC and James Madison University’s School of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication. June 2017. Presentation.
“On Kitsch in Nature & Technology,” What is Life? University of Oregon. Portland, Oregon. April 2017. Presentation.
"On Kitsch in Nature & Technology: Redefining Kitsch for Posthuman Feminist Aesthetics”, MidweSTS, Illinois Institute of Technology, September 2016. Presentation.
“The Modified Body: The Work of Orlan,” Digital Media, Goldsmiths, 2011. Presentation.
“Database logic”, Seminar, Interactive Media, Goldsmiths, University of London. London, England. 2011. Presentation.
Artist Talk. Simulated Vistas, North Park University, Chicago, IL, 2006.
GRANTS & AWARDS
2022 3Arts Award Nominee, 3Arts
2021 SPARK Grant, Chicago Artist Coalition
2021 Individual Artist Support Grant, Illinois Arts Council Agency
2020 Arts for Illinois Relief Fund (AIRF) (in partnership with 3Arts & Arts Work Fund)
2020 Propeller IMPACT Fund
2018 Individual Artist Project Support Grant, Illinois Arts Council Agency
2017 Individual Artist Program, Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE)
2012 Kickstarter Project – Fundraiser for Photography Project “Female Ghost” with A. Rhoades
2009 Individual Artist Project Grant, Chicago Artist Assistantship Program, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events
2008 Jurors Choice Artist, Chicago Art Open, Chicago Artists’ Coalition
2004 Honorable Mention, BFA Honors Exhibition, A&D Gallery, Columbia College Chicago
EXHIBITIONS & ACTIVITIES
Window Shopping, Purple Window Gallery, Chicago, IL, December 11-15, 2022.
Home Grown, MdW Fair, Mobile Unpacked Gallery, Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL, September 9-11, 2022.
“All Available Senses”, Wonderland Fishtown Sculpture Garden, Philadelphia, PA, July-October 2021. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
“Schizo-Shamanic Alliances” Theoretical Seminar In partnership with EUR ArTeC-Paris 8 & the Autonomous Intercultural Indigenous University UAIIN. Hosted by NOMASMETAFORAS. February-March 2021. This seminar entangles a dialogue between contemporary art practice, philosophy and Ancestral thought.
“Posthuman Convergences: Theories & Methodologies” Intensive Summer Seminar led by Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht University. August 12-21, 2020.
Curator, “A Rose is a Rose: Sabina Ott”. South Chicago location, Terrain Biennial, 2019.
Residency, The Digital Naturalism Conference, Gamboa, Panama. August 12-19, 2019.
Abstract Mind, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA Museum), South Korea, 2019
Art Teleported, Brooklyn, CICA Museum, Brooklyn, NY, 2019.
2018 CT+CR Spring Colloquium & Artist Residency, Oregon Institute for Creative Research, Portland, Oregon
Media Arts Show. HASTAC 2017: The Possible World of Digital Humanities. University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida. November 2017
River Assembly, Floating Museum. Lead Artist & Floating Fellows Teaching Artist, 2017
Terrain Biennale, Terrain Exhibitions, Oak Park, IL, 2013.
Female Ghost: Archives of L’Enfer, (Project exhibition with A. Rhoades), Cité Internationale Des Arts, Paris, France, 2013
Artist Residency, (with A. Rhoades), Cité Internationale Des Arts, Paris, France, October 2012- March 2013
ROW, auction & benefit, Chicago, IL, 2010
Extreme Studio, A&D Gallery, Chicago IL, 2010
Weather, Happy Dog, Chicago, IL, 2008
Chicago Art Open, Iron Studios, Chicago, IL, 2008
The Show Show, East Bank Storage, Chicago, IL, 2007
Sojourn, Margin Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Simulated Vistas, North Park University, Chicago, IL, 2006. With Sabina Ott, Michelle Wasson & Kelly VanderBrug
Summer Group Show, Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago, IL, 2006
BFA Thesis Show, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2006
Nova Art Fair, A&D gallery, Chicago, IL, 2006
Vice Grip, Hokin Gallery, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2005
Honors Exhibition (by nomination), Hokin Gallery, Columbia College Chicago, IL, 2005
“A little something pretty”, Group exhibition + performance of original monologue, curated by Michele Lantieri, Miami, FL, 2003
“Sometimes Life”, Original play written + directed by Kris Casey, performed in collaboration with community members, Miami, FL, 2003
BIBLIOGRAPHY / REVIEWS
“The Internal History of Things”, Issue XXXV, October 2021, High Shelf Press
“Posthuman: New Media Art 2020", 2020 CICA Press, Gimpo, Korea
Studio Visit Magazine. Volume 43. The Open Studio Press. 2019.
“[Re]Collect”, Exhibition Review, Time Out Chicago Magazine, February 2007, p. 69.
“Swollen Moment” (essay) Made Magazine, February 2007, p.44-47.
“Drawing Blood in Bridgeport”, Exhibition Review, Kevin Nance, Chicago Suntimes, October 2007.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
❖ Teaching Artist, Project 3rd Space, Student Ages 14-24, SkyART, Chicago, Fall 2018-Spring 2021
Selected Courses Taught: Vital Painting: Experimental and Performative Processes in Painting Material Interventions, Photography: Self Portrait, Hybrid Painting: Digital/Analog, Action Painting, Installation Art, Video Art, New Media Art
❖ Teaching Artist, Oil Painting, AP High School workshop, SkyART & Bowen High School, Chicago, IL, 2017
❖ Lead Artist, Floating Fellows, Floating Museum & SkyART, Chicago, IL, Summer 2017
❖ Foundations of Art, Fall 2009-2010, South Chicago Art Center, Chicago
❖ Drawing Teacher, Young Rembrandts, Chicago, IL, 2004-2005
❖ Expressive Arts Workshop, Three Arts Club, Chicago, IL, 2002
❖ Figure Drawing Workshop, Three Arts Club, Chicago, IL 2002
MEMBERSHIPS
College Art Association (CAA) | American Philosophical Association | Fembot Collective | MidweSTS Network | Performance Philosophy
COLLECTIONS
Permanent collection of Columbia College Chicago
Private collections throughout the USA