Katie Murken

ARTIST STATEMENT

I create art as a way to transmute injustices to women into a source of power.  I work with everyday, abject materials that contain the essence of these injustices and I use my process to transform them into works of art that reveal the beauty inherent in the act of giving care.  I gravitate to ubiquitous materials cast-off from consumer culture because for me they represent the invisibility and devaluation of women’s labor.  Using humble techniques based in quilting, piecework and collage I approach these objects with an attitude of maternal tenderness and the desire to breathe new life into something that feels hopeless.  Through my careful and attentive reworking I transform these cast-off materials into powerful manifestations of hope and healing.  

BIO

Katie Murken (b. 1980, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a Bay Area artist working in sculpture, collage and installation. Murken holds an MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and BFA with Honors from The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA. Her work has been exhibited at Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Great Highway Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Woolff Gallery, London, UK; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ; The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN; and The Contemporary Arts Center of Las Vegas, NV.  Murken is a 2024 SECA Art Award nominee, presented by SFMOMA. She is the recipient of an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts and a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellowship. Murken’s work is included in the collections of The Pennsylvania Convention Center, The William Paterson University, and the J. Edgar Louise S. Monroe Library at Loyola University.