For the most up-to-date news and artwork please follow Kat O'Connor on Instagram @katopaints

Lines of Thought / Contemporary Women Artists Draw
Jane Deering Gallery
19 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA
Opens August 1, 4-6:30PM

Two of Kat's drawings are included in this exhibition, including Giving Away Sound (pictured above).

Kat O'Connor: Swimming the Jewel
Highfield Hall & Gardens, Falmouth, Massachusetts
July 23-October 31, 2024

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Kat's acrylic painting Returns was one of 10 paintings chosen to be exhibited at Fitchburg Art Museum from the exhibit Feast at ArtsWorcester. You can view all ten artworks at FAM through September 8, along with the always exciting Regional Exhibition of Art and Craft. My painting The Menagerie is included in that exhibition.
"Why the fascination with painting (or photographing) dead things? I'm not exactly sure, but historically speaking, artists paint form and beauty. Think of the Marco d'Agrate sculpture of St. Bartholomew. For me that has always been about studying the structure and anatomy of human form. Returns feels almost religious to me. I was inspired by the Blue Fish so common on the shores of Cape Cod. Fishermen discard the heads and take the bodies to eat, much the way the chickens of Jules Aarons' West End Market hang headless and ready for the dinner table." Kat O'Connor.

Kat's drawing Occupy that Space was awarded the Baldwin Prize for Drawing by Juror Candice Smith Corby in Concord Art's MJ2 2024 exhibition. The piece will be on display there until March 22, 2024.

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Kat recently completed a commission for Jack and Diana Clymer which they generously donated to the Beede Center in Concord, Massachusetts. The seven foot long oil on ACP painting hangs just above the downstairs entrance to the pool area. The image is entirely composed of volunteers from the Beede community who gathered on two occasions to pose in the pool for Kat. Their willingness to participate in the project is so appreciated!

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Kat was awarded a Copley Society Residency Fellowship for the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts during the late fall of 2023. She spent a month painting in a beautiful studio at the FAWC complex, and finding inspiration swimming and walking the beaches of Cape Cod.

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Kat continues to work with Creative Connections in Ashburnham. Stop by and see her paintings!

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Kat O'Connor will be honored with a solo exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum July 16-October 16, 2022.

An artist's talk will be held Sunday, July 24th, at 2PM.

More information can be found at worcesterart.org

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Kat is honored that writer Melanie McCabe chose her painting The Night Swimmers for the cover of her book of poetry, The Night Divers. The Night Divers was a poetry finalist in the Library of Virginia's Literary Awards.

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A History of Motion, Oil on Wood Panel

A History of Motion was chosen for The Newport Biennial 2022 by juror Dr. Kimberli Gant, the McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Chrysler Museum. The exhibit will be on view at the Newport Art Musuem through May 29, 2022.

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Bits will mark my first solo exhibition in New Mexico, and the first time I've shared paintings done from an equestrian's perspective! See it at kind of a small array gallery, 106 N. Main, Magdalena, New Mexico. Art Walk is May 7th and 8th, 11-4PM. I will be there for Art Walk!

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Kat's painting Dreaming Through Snell's Window won the Sally Bishop Prize for Best in Show in ArtsWorcester's 2021 Biennial, juried by Beth C. McLaughlin, Curator of the Fuller Craft Museum. McLaughlin's comments about Kat's work can be heard in the following brief video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdH9HDdjmrU

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Take a Deep Breath and Dive, Oil on Paper, 30" X 22," Private Collection.

Kat's painting Take a Deep Breath and Dive won First Place in Copley Society of Arts juried exhibition 'New Beginnings,' awarded by juror Ali Ringenburg, Owner/Director of Sloane Merrill Gallery.

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Unfurling, #1, Kat O'Connor, Oil on Panel, available at Flora! The Shop

Flora! The Shop continutes to sell my work in Holyoke, Massachusetts and on their website. Details at floratheshop.com.

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Persephone's Bath, Kat O'Connor, Oil on Paper

Kat's painting Persephone's Bath won First Place in Copley Society of Arts juried exhibition 'Full Spectrum,' awarded by juror Gordon Wilkins, Curator of American Art at the Addison Gallery of Art, Andover, Massachusetts.

A full color image of Persephone's Bath was included in ArtScope Magazine, March/April 2020. From Brian Goslow's article Our Ever Changing Moods: "Wilkins said that he was drawn to the richness of O'Connor's palette "as well as to the evocative narrative that one can perceive by looking at this work. I found that O'Connor very creatively addressed the theme, transforming it into a surreal yet pointed composition."

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Kat's painting 'The Night Swim' won First Prize in Copley Society's exhibit 'Re/Vision,' juried by Erin R. Corrales-Diaz , Curator of American Art at Worcester Art Musem.
Exhibited July 11- August 18, 2019.

"I really marvel at this artist's technical skill to achieve the illusion of figures partially submerged in clear water and the reflection of the night. Don't you feel like you can take a dip? Everything about this painting was superb: the technique, the color, the composition. I've never seen anything like this before."
Erin Corrales-Diaz, Curator of American Art, Worcester Art Museum, on choosing Kat O'Connor's painting 'The Night Swim,' for the first prize award in Copley Society's exhibition Re/Vision, as quoted by Artscope Magazine.

 

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Acadia Mezzofanti's image of Kat O'Connor working in her studio.
Mezzofanti is working on a project examining artistic identity and expanding boundaries for women in the arts and cultural scene in and around Boston. A two volume digital book will be published in the fall. Check back here for a link to it and take a look at Acadia Mezzofanti's work. acadiamezzofanti.com

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People often talk about my work in relation to Hockney's pool paintings, but I love the description of the experience of being in a pool in relation to the subject of Hockney's paintings as written by Heather MacPherson in the current Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review. My Painting, Square Dive, is included with the essay.

https://www.eckleburg.org/hotel-pool-or-gay-subject-matter-by-heather-macpherson/

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Definite:Indefinite. Michael Hachey and Kat O'Connor
Explorations in Realism and Abstraction
*Click to read more about the project on this website

Fabulous article written about Definite:Indefinite by Nancy Sheehan of the Telegram & Gazette

Hear an interview about the show with Kat O'Connor and Michael Hachey on WICN Public Radio (podcast)

Arts and Ideas television interview with Michael Hachey and Kat O'Connor.

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Kat O'Connor is proud to announce that she is a 2021 recipient of an Arts Worcester Material Needs Grant. The grant will assist her in working with new painting surfaces including Aluminum Composite Panel, PVC Panel, and a watercolor surface of her own concoction.

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Kat's painting Epic was featured on the cover of Artscope Magazine's July/August 2016 Issue:

http://zine.artscopemagazine.com/2016/06/julyaugust-2016/