THIS SIDE OF THE SUN
by Katya Roberts
January 31 – March 27, 2020
Demonstration: Saturday, April 10, 11 am - 1 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, April 23, 6 pm
Rochester artist Katya Roberts presents a new body of work in Threshold Arts’ Turret Gallery at the Castle. The exhibition features drawings, video, and 3D installation.
Artist Statement
Influenced by my Sociology and Cultural Geography background, my art thinks about the intersection and interaction between people and spaces. I’m interested in commonalities within the human experience as well as conceptual and material dualities. I’m drawn to intangible concepts such as the passage of time. Iceland, with its geologically dynamic landscapes often becomes the backdrop against which I explore those thoughts. Past work has explored communication, sound, time and tension between human and natural forces. I aim to find poetry within the materials, while working to push their materiality into a visceral, nostalgic, or meditative state. My working process at times involves formal or conceptual deconstruction and reunification as I create two-dimensional and three-dimensional works with a light or ethereal aesthetic quality.
About the Artist
Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Katya Roberts grew up in California and studied Sociology and Art at UCLA. In 2002 she received the UCLA Women in Art Award. After working at Fox Studios, she taught and developed the visual arts curriculum at Pacifica, a college preparatory school in Santa Monica, CA. In 2015, Katya exhibited a series of three installations in three months for KCRW summer nights in Chinatown in Los Angeles, CA. In 2016, she moved to Rochester, Minnesota and founded the Mayo Art Group and became a Rochester Art Center summer artist in residence. In 2017, Katya had a winning sculpture proposal for the public art series Art4Trails. “Unbroken,” an aluminum sculpture is now on permanent installation at Mayo Park. In 2018, Katya was a recipient of the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council grant for a solo exhibition titled Traverse at the Rochester Art Center on view Oct 2018-Jan 2019.
Cover image: Polar Vortex 2019, January 2019. Video still.
