Kate Ericson
{{Short description|Artist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox artist
| birth_date = December 25, 1955
| name = Kate Witte Ericson
| birth_place = Manhattan, New York City
| death_date = October 29, 1995
| death_place = Milanville, Pennsylvania
| nationality = American
| known_for = Installation works of beauty, complexity and social awareness
| style = Contemporary, conceptual
| education = BFA, Kansas City Art Institute, 1978
MFA, California Institute of the Arts, 1982
| spouse = Mel Ziegler
}}
Kate Witte Ericson (1955–1995) was an American artist whose work dealt with sociocultural issues, and it often manifested as public art.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/01/nyregion/kate-ericson-39-installation-artist.html|title=Kate Ericson, 39, Installation Artist|date=November 1, 1995|newspaper=New York Times|via=|accessdate=5 March 2016}}
Life and education
The daughter of Herbert Arthur Ericson and Alma Elaine (née Witte) Ericson, she was born in Manhattan in 1955. She took coursework at the University of Colorado Boulder, 1973-75; and at Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design, London, in 1975.{{Cite web|last=Rifkin|first=Ned|date=January 1988|title=Kate Ericson/Mel Ziegler WORKS|url=https://hirshhorn.si.edu/dynamic/archives/Works-Kate-Ericson-Mel-Ziegler-Brochure.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307215852/https://hirshhorn.si.edu/dynamic/archives/Works-Kate-Ericson-Mel-Ziegler-Brochure.pdf|archive-date=March 7, 2018|website=hirshhorn.si.edu}}
Ericson received a B.F.A. in sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1978, and took classes at the University of Texas at Austin in 1979.
Ericson earned an M.F.A. in sculpture from the California Institute of the Arts in 1982. She and her husband Mel Ziegler studied under Michael Asher, Douglas Huebler, and John Baldessari.{{Cite web|date=|title=Ericson & Ziegler : Perrotin|url=https://www.perrotin.com/artists/Kate_Ericson_et_Mel_Ziegler/181#images|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180413232339/https://www.perrotin.com/artists/Kate_Ericson_et_Mel_Ziegler/181#images|archive-date=April 13, 2018|access-date=2018-04-13|website=www.perrotin.com|language=en}}
Career
A frequent collaborator with her husband Mel Ziegler, Ericson's work examined issues related to natural and built environments, social policy, community, and labor.{{Cite news|url=https://www.flashartonline.com/2014/10/kate-ericson-mel-ziegler-galerie-perrotin-new-york/|title=Kate Ericson & Mel Ziegler Galerie Perrotin / New York|date=2014-10-23|work=Flash Art|access-date=2018-04-14|language=en-US}} While many of her endeavors used outside public spaces or site-specific installation strategies in traditional gallery spaces, she also produced objects and drawings as well.{{Cite web|last=Harris|first=Susan|date=2014-10-01|title=Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler at Galerie Perrotin|url=http://www.artnews.com/2014/10/01/kate-ericson-and-mel-ziegler-at-galerie-perrotin/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151025061616/http://www.artnews.com/2014/10/01/kate-ericson-and-mel-ziegler-at-galerie-perrotin/|archive-date=October 25, 2015|access-date=2018-04-13|website=ARTnews|language=en-US}} She is said to use "a style that featured provocative accumulations of materials and ideas, many of them involved with architecture, American history and the economy." Her site-specific works often engaged communities by connecting them to issues and policies that impact them in ways that made visible challenges and conflicts, leading to more community agency.{{Cite news|url=http://thechromologist.com/preservation-order-amazing-story-camouflage-house/|title=Preservation Order - The Amazing Story of This Camouflage House - The Chromologist|date=2014-09-18|work=The Chromologist|access-date=2018-04-14|language=en-US}}
Dennis Cooper of Artforum wrote, "What distinguishes Ericson and Ziegler's collaborative efforts—and, to a lesser extent, the pieces they’ve been making individually since 1980—is their unabashed continuation of deconstructive modes at a time when so many intellectually inclined artists are romancing viewers with imagery again."{{Cite web|last=Cooper|first=Dennis|date=1988|title=Dennis Cooper on Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler|url=https://www.artforum.com/print/reviews/198804/kate-ericson-and-mel-ziegler-61626|access-date=2018-04-13|website=www.artforum.com}}
Selected exhibits
- 1991, "Camouflaged History", Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, S.C. Ste-specific works dealing with Charleston’s history.{{Cite news|last=Rose|first=Frank|date=2014-07-31|title=50 Shades of Blue, Green, Everything (Published 2014)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/arts/design/kate-ericson-and-mel-ziegler-collaborated-in-color.html|access-date=2021-02-12|issn=0362-4331}}
- 1988, "America Starts Here", Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania{{Cite web|title=Projects: Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler|url=https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_327518.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180413231433/https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_327518.pdf|archive-date=April 13, 2018|access-date=April 13, 2018|website=moma.org}}
- 1988, "The Conscious Stone", the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
- 1987, "If Landscapes Were Sold", DiverseWorks, Houston
- 1986, "Stones Have Been Known to Move", White Columns, New York
- 1986, "House Monument", the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art
- 1989, "Here and There: Travels IV: Mapping Travels"{{Cite web|title=Kate Ericson {{!}} MoMA|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/66517|access-date=2021-02-13|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en}}
References
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Category:20th-century American women artists
Category:Alumni of London Metropolitan University
Category:Artists from New York City
Category:California Institute of the Arts alumni
Category:Kansas City Art Institute alumni