KATHE BURKHART
Biography
Kathe Burkhart is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York City who is primarily known for her Liz Taylor Series of paintings. Born in 1958 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, she holds an MFA (1984) and BFA (1982) from CalArts. Her work has been the subject of 51 solo exhibitions, including Rozensteraat, the Netherlands; Kunsthalle FriArt, Fribourg, Switzerland; MoMA PS1 NYC; Participant, Inc, NYC; Cheim and Read Gallery, NYC; Mary Boone Gallery, NYC among others. She participated in the 45th Venice Biennale (1993). Group exhibitions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, the New Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland. She was named a Guggenheim fellow in 2017 and received grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation and the Mondriaan Foundation. Her work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Baltimore Museum of Art, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, among others. The Kathe Burkhart Papers are held by NYU’s Fales Special Collections.
https://cheimread.com/exhibitions/26-kathe-burkhart/
Project Proposal
Storage Consolidation of the Liz Taylor Series 1982-2025 and Establishment of New Studio
I have all of the needs and issues of a late career artist that are listed and covered by the grant: making new work, studio space, website creation, assistance with cataloging art and archiving, and the storage of art.
But my primary project is the storage and consolidation of the Liz Taylor Series of paintings and to setting up a new studio. These two needs dovetail with each other. I would allocate the grant between storage costs and part of the cost of setting up a new studio. The Liz Taylor Series has been pivotal in establishing a feminist visual discourse in conceptual art and painting. Many works from the series have entered public and private collections, but still, after 45 years of prolific production, I am paying the price in storage to keep this legacy safe. Since I was displaced from my NYC studio of 31 years in 2017, I have been working in various temporary spaces and have had periods of exile working abroad, which has been far from ideal for me, especially now at 66. My project is to set up a studio again, and to reduce my storage costs by both consolidating the existing storage and moving some of the paintings to the new space. My sales are sporadic and cannot fully support the cost of storage on an ongoing basis without falling into debt, so I am looking for financial assistance and sustainable solutions. My inventory of unsold work is currently spread out in three separate facilities. While the travel crates acquired through exhibitions are certainly valuable for future use, my fine art storage needs consolidation, and some of them will unfortunately have to be discarded, or moved to a cheaper facility to reduce costs. Cutting costs by moving work to a cheaper facility and/or discarding travel crates, however, will incur additional labor costs at the very least. A grant from Tree of Life would improve my well-being by providing the necessary funding to cover some of the storage costs of preserving and conserving my work and reducing my yearly storage costs. Re-establishing the physical studio will lead to completing a new body of work, as well a place for studio visits. That is critical to moving my artistic career forward and to maintaining and stimulating renewed interest in my work.
Biography
Kathe Burkhart is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York City who is primarily known for her Liz Taylor Series of paintings. Born in 1958 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, she holds an MFA (1984) and BFA (1982) from CalArts. Her work has been the subject of 51 solo exhibitions, including Rozensteraat, the Netherlands; Kunsthalle FriArt, Fribourg, Switzerland; MoMA PS1 NYC; Participant, Inc, NYC; Cheim and Read Gallery, NYC; Mary Boone Gallery, NYC among others. She participated in the 45th Venice Biennale (1993). Group exhibitions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, the New Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland. She was named a Guggenheim fellow in 2017 and received grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation and the Mondriaan Foundation. Her work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Baltimore Museum of Art, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, among others. The Kathe Burkhart Papers are held by NYU’s Fales Special Collections.
https://cheimread.com/exhibitions/26-kathe-burkhart/
Project Proposal
Storage Consolidation of the Liz Taylor Series 1982-2025 and Establishment of New Studio
I have all of the needs and issues of a late career artist that are listed and covered by the grant: making new work, studio space, website creation, assistance with cataloging art and archiving, and the storage of art.
But my primary project is the storage and consolidation of the Liz Taylor Series of paintings and to setting up a new studio. These two needs dovetail with each other. I would allocate the grant between storage costs and part of the cost of setting up a new studio. The Liz Taylor Series has been pivotal in establishing a feminist visual discourse in conceptual art and painting. Many works from the series have entered public and private collections, but still, after 45 years of prolific production, I am paying the price in storage to keep this legacy safe. Since I was displaced from my NYC studio of 31 years in 2017, I have been working in various temporary spaces and have had periods of exile working abroad, which has been far from ideal for me, especially now at 66. My project is to set up a studio again, and to reduce my storage costs by both consolidating the existing storage and moving some of the paintings to the new space. My sales are sporadic and cannot fully support the cost of storage on an ongoing basis without falling into debt, so I am looking for financial assistance and sustainable solutions. My inventory of unsold work is currently spread out in three separate facilities. While the travel crates acquired through exhibitions are certainly valuable for future use, my fine art storage needs consolidation, and some of them will unfortunately have to be discarded, or moved to a cheaper facility to reduce costs. Cutting costs by moving work to a cheaper facility and/or discarding travel crates, however, will incur additional labor costs at the very least. A grant from Tree of Life would improve my well-being by providing the necessary funding to cover some of the storage costs of preserving and conserving my work and reducing my yearly storage costs. Re-establishing the physical studio will lead to completing a new body of work, as well a place for studio visits. That is critical to moving my artistic career forward and to maintaining and stimulating renewed interest in my work.