In the studio, July 2024

About

Face cream, aspirin, duct tape and cookies are just a few of the countless products we might encounter and overlook in our daily lives. These kinds of consumer items and the culture that promotes them is the thing that intrigues me and inspires most of my work.

What if instead of shopping, buying and using products they become a catalyst for seeing the everyday in a new way? Adapting or incorporating elements of consumer culture in my work stimulates moments of reflection, evokes shared experiences, ideas of community and questions of value. Putting familiar materials into unexpected settings creates a different understanding of marketing and consumption in favor of more meaningful exchange.  

These are the foundational questions I try to address through my practice which includes drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, installation and social practice projects. I use everyday materials in my pieces to uncover commercial strategies and investigate ideas of community, ecology, and themes of re-use.

PRESS

  • Suboart Magazine, Featured artist. (November 2024)

  • Unicorn Factory: Featured artist, Instagram (January 2021)

  • David Brower Center: “Reimagining Progress: Artists in Conversation” (May 2014)

  • SF Gate: “Pick of the Week” October 24-27 by: Kenneth Baker (2013)

  • Handful of Salt: “Noticed: Your Store” by: Dominique Koudsi (September 2013)

  • The Bold Italic : “Turning Crazy Mission Rents into Art” by: Jennifer Maerz (October 2013)

  • Handful of Salt: “Kathryn Kenworth, quiet maverick” by: Regina Connell (Apri 2013l)

  • Kathryn Kenworth: Street Life by Stephen Maine (January 2012)

  • Mission 17: 2004-2009. A publication featuring exhibitions at MISSION 17. Introduction by Director Clark Buckner and a foreword by Glen Helfand (July 2009)

  • East Bay Express: “Five artist examine the Urban Matrix” by: DeWitt Cheng (February 2009)

  • Straw into Gold: Interview with Amy Conger: "What's it worth?" The potential of bartering and re-use in the business of art. - 16 December 2009

  • SF Weekly: "A Grab Bag of Art Shows plays Santa to the Masses" by: Traci Vogel (December 2009)

  • KQED's Forum: "Bay Area Bests" - 27 November 2009

  • Berkeley Daily Planet: "The Fake Real of 'Future Tense' at Kala Art" by: Peter Selz (July 2006)

  • SFist.com: "Between the Walls: Southern Exposure Gets Ready for a Major Metamorphosis" - May 22 2006

  • Artweek: Kathryn Kenworth at Humboldt State's First Street Gallery