April 15th, Noon - 2pm
MONSTERS BELOW: March 16th - April 28th
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, April 7th, 6pm to 8pm
THIRD THURSDAYS: March 16th, 5pm - 8pm; April 20th, 5pm - 8pm
ARTIST TALK: April 15th, Noon - 2pm
GALLERY HOURS: MONDAY - FRIDAY 10 AM - 1 PM and BY APPOINTMENT
Washington, DC─ Join us for a lively artist talk with Baltimore-based artist, Katie Pumphrey. April 15th, Noon - 2pm. Free and Open to the Public.
Washington Studio School (WSS) is pleased to present Monsters Below, a solo exhibition featuring recent work by Katie Pumphrey, with large scale paintings, sculptures, and a site specific installation. Pulling from her experiences as an open water swimmer, her work uses playful imagery, vibrating color, and a bit of silliness, to investigate the tension between the constant chaos around us and the scramble to find calm at the surface of it all.
Monsters Below explores the sneaky trickster that is our imagination. The beasts of our anxieties and fears try to convince us the darkness is full of silly-eyed monsters that will swallow us whole. We wrestle them again and again, thinking we've made it to the other side. Yet they're always lurking just below.
About the Artist
Katie Pumphrey is an American contemporary artist. Pumphrey has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has participated in artist residencies at the Studios of Key West, Vermont Studio Center, Gallery Four, and the Creative Alliance in Baltimore. Her work has been exhibited nationally, including solo exhibitions in Baltimore, Washington DC, Alexandria, and Key West. Pumphrey is also an ultra-marathon open water swimmer. Katie has swam the English Channel twice (2015, 2022), as well as around the island of Manhattan (2017), and the Catalina Channel (2018). Those three swims make up the Triple Crown of open water swimming, making Katie the 194th person (73rd woman) in the world to achieve that honor. This aspect of her life constantly influences and drives her work. Pumphrey lives and works in Baltimore City, MD.
About Washington Studio School
Washington Studio School (WSS) is a nonprofit studio arts organization in Washington, DC whose mission is to teach how to see and create through drawing, painting and sculpture. We offer classes, workshops, exhibitions, and programs to engage, connect and bring people together with a fresh approach to traditional studio art. To learn more about WSS, visit washingtonstudioschool.org.
For more information, or to request images, please contact WSS Communications Manager, Rachael Bohlander at communications@washingtonstudioschool.org.
WSS and this program are supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.