Kate Bae (b. Busan, Korea) explores themes surrounding her Korean background, identity, and peace to create works that are both paintings and sculptures, yet neither at the same time. Bae pours acrylic paint into casts and peels them like skin, rather than painting, forming them into handmade flowers. By doing this, the paint exists only as material. Bae is able to observe her own psychological and physical boundaries as an immigrant and reinterpret her experiences within her work. Her floral works represent nature, but also form a system of communication that help Bae make sense of her disconnect and displacement between her home country and the United States, which was forced to be her home at a young age. This sort of internal fracture between her identity and history directly translates to her practice and her own self-awareness within a broken space. She is consistently trying to piece together her identity while navigating an extremely influential environment.
Bae holds an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, both in painting. Bae has exhibited nationally and internationally including solo shows at the Sunroom Project Space in Wave Hill, Bronx, NY and the Deiglan Gallery in Akureyri, Iceland. She has received awards and grants from Betsy Meyer Foundation, Real Art Ways, MVP Chapter Lead Grant from Malikah Gender Justice Institute, Ora Lerman Trust, Creative Capital Professional Development Program and the NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, and has attended numerous residencies including Golden Foundation, the Studios at Mass MoCA, Trestle Gallery, the Wassaic Project, Chashama and Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency.
Bae holds an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, both in painting. Bae has exhibited nationally and internationally including solo shows at the Sunroom Project Space in Wave Hill, Bronx, NY and the Deiglan Gallery in Akureyri, Iceland. She has received awards and grants from Betsy Meyer Foundation, Real Art Ways, MVP Chapter Lead Grant from Malikah Gender Justice Institute, Ora Lerman Trust, Creative Capital Professional Development Program and the NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, and has attended numerous residencies including Golden Foundation, the Studios at Mass MoCA, Trestle Gallery, the Wassaic Project, Chashama and Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency.
Published on May 19th, 2022. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What are you currently excited about in your art practice?
I have encountered new media recently – notably textile, ceramics and sound. I am learning many new things and collaborating on projects that I never thought possible to do by myself. I am thinking about combining my paintings with textile to strengthen the fragility of standing alone pieces – time will be able to tell if it would work or not. I am welcoming accidents, chaos, random objects, interventions and interactions. A lot of my works are becoming sculptural. Yet I still have the desire to go back to completely traditional oil paintings, too. It is evolving.
What were some of the challenges you faced last year as an artist? Was your work/ art practice affected by the pandemic this year, if so how?
Since the pandemic I have added an element of interactive sound into my work to my immersive installations. I’ve gotten a lot of harassments as an Asian American during the pandemic; I wanted to combat the hate energy. I saw one child about 6 years old playing Willie’s Dream (the only work I made during the pandemic) for 20 minutes straight at its opening night. She was having time of her life with so much joy; she restored faith in humanity for me. I thought we could use more of that in the world to cancel out hate – that’s why I started to implement sound more. It can reach people faster and easier than painting can. You are basically looking at my attempts to contribute positive energy to the world with what I can. Also the limitation of the space influenced me quite a bit; the textile works would allow me to be able to work in smaller spaces.
What does a typical day in the studio (or wherever you're making work) look like for you these days? What time of day are you at your studio, what are your studio must haves (ex: music, coffee, tools, etc), and what does your creative space look like?
I do not have a dedicated space for my creative work as I cannot afford a studio in New York City. I have been attending residencies in order to create; so, I trained myself to work small, fast and able to pick up where I stopped last. It is disruptive, and the progress is slow, even though I work fast. I take many small breaks but basically, I utilize my time well. When I am attending residencies, I get up early morning to watch the sunrise, exercise and eat well, then I start my studio practice until the nightfall. When I am immersed, I spread out; I take over the floor space because I need to spill paint and let them dry. I need as many elements as possible in order to engage in collage, so my studio tends to look like a colorful apocalypse.
I wrote that a month ago and now I have acquired a studio for 1.5 months in Brooklyn – we will see how it would work out as I go set up the studio soon.
What resources for artists have you found helpful that may be helpful for other artists?
I find NYFA website useful. I went to Chatauqua Art Residency this summer and Sharon Louden is the director there – she has a vast list of the resources that any artists can utilize – here is the link: https://www.sharonlouden.com/#/resources/. Also I’ve been using the Dreambook journal in PDF and it has been very helpful for me to clarify my goals in daily, weekly and monthly increment. I typically use it in my iPad with Apple Pencil. It just feels like I have more control of my day with it. It's so important to stay focused if you want to achieve your goals.
What in your art career are you looking forward to in the upcoming year? Do you have any specific goals or projects in mind?
Next year will be a great transitional year for me as I am looking into a longer studio situation and stop going to residencies like I usually do. My goal is to have clarity every day. It feels like time is slipping off from me and I need the meditation to regain the focus. It has been such a hectic year as so much has happened. I have two confirmed exhibitions coming up next year - I feel the need to step up as an artist and a person and I want to take my time to re-examine and recalibrate. I think the year 2022 will be a quiet year for me as I try to figure out the transition.
What are you currently excited about in your art practice?
I have encountered new media recently – notably textile, ceramics and sound. I am learning many new things and collaborating on projects that I never thought possible to do by myself. I am thinking about combining my paintings with textile to strengthen the fragility of standing alone pieces – time will be able to tell if it would work or not. I am welcoming accidents, chaos, random objects, interventions and interactions. A lot of my works are becoming sculptural. Yet I still have the desire to go back to completely traditional oil paintings, too. It is evolving.
What were some of the challenges you faced last year as an artist? Was your work/ art practice affected by the pandemic this year, if so how?
Since the pandemic I have added an element of interactive sound into my work to my immersive installations. I’ve gotten a lot of harassments as an Asian American during the pandemic; I wanted to combat the hate energy. I saw one child about 6 years old playing Willie’s Dream (the only work I made during the pandemic) for 20 minutes straight at its opening night. She was having time of her life with so much joy; she restored faith in humanity for me. I thought we could use more of that in the world to cancel out hate – that’s why I started to implement sound more. It can reach people faster and easier than painting can. You are basically looking at my attempts to contribute positive energy to the world with what I can. Also the limitation of the space influenced me quite a bit; the textile works would allow me to be able to work in smaller spaces.
What does a typical day in the studio (or wherever you're making work) look like for you these days? What time of day are you at your studio, what are your studio must haves (ex: music, coffee, tools, etc), and what does your creative space look like?
I do not have a dedicated space for my creative work as I cannot afford a studio in New York City. I have been attending residencies in order to create; so, I trained myself to work small, fast and able to pick up where I stopped last. It is disruptive, and the progress is slow, even though I work fast. I take many small breaks but basically, I utilize my time well. When I am attending residencies, I get up early morning to watch the sunrise, exercise and eat well, then I start my studio practice until the nightfall. When I am immersed, I spread out; I take over the floor space because I need to spill paint and let them dry. I need as many elements as possible in order to engage in collage, so my studio tends to look like a colorful apocalypse.
I wrote that a month ago and now I have acquired a studio for 1.5 months in Brooklyn – we will see how it would work out as I go set up the studio soon.
What resources for artists have you found helpful that may be helpful for other artists?
I find NYFA website useful. I went to Chatauqua Art Residency this summer and Sharon Louden is the director there – she has a vast list of the resources that any artists can utilize – here is the link: https://www.sharonlouden.com/#/resources/. Also I’ve been using the Dreambook journal in PDF and it has been very helpful for me to clarify my goals in daily, weekly and monthly increment. I typically use it in my iPad with Apple Pencil. It just feels like I have more control of my day with it. It's so important to stay focused if you want to achieve your goals.
What in your art career are you looking forward to in the upcoming year? Do you have any specific goals or projects in mind?
Next year will be a great transitional year for me as I am looking into a longer studio situation and stop going to residencies like I usually do. My goal is to have clarity every day. It feels like time is slipping off from me and I need the meditation to regain the focus. It has been such a hectic year as so much has happened. I have two confirmed exhibitions coming up next year - I feel the need to step up as an artist and a person and I want to take my time to re-examine and recalibrate. I think the year 2022 will be a quiet year for me as I try to figure out the transition.
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