Catherine Howe is artist who paints from nature; her paintings will never be pure abstraction. All kinds of images strain to emerge and be understood.
The paintings are process-based while retaining an affinity with
observed subject matter. There is always a trail, in the fluid, effervescent materials, a kind of evidence that will remain.
There is a calculated balance between control and risk. This is at the crux of the work. The thrill for Howe is when there is an exquisite balance between expectation of control and desire for surprise.
The drawing or execution of thework, is something she is completely confident of.
While embracing new materials, she knows one medium will repel or absorb, but she can be surprised by how much or when things will change.
Her choice of paint, mediums and supports run interference with what she already knows and has already done to get somewhere else.
Howe has exhibited extensively in the U.S. and Europe, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, MoMA PS1 and The Albright-Knox Art Gallery. She is in important collections worldwide.
Her works has been reviewed in Art in America, Artforum, Art Critical, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Flash Art, Artcritical, BOMB, Whitewall Magazine, il Giornale dell’ Arte, the New Art Examiner, and The Los Angeles Times.
She is currently a Professor on the Graduate Painting Faculty at the New York Academy of Art, where she leads a seminar on contemporary art.
The artist works in Manhattan and a farmhouse in The Hudson Valley.