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Katie Grinnan is an artist and educator living and working in Los Angeles. She received her M.F.A. from U.C.L.A. in 1999. Grinnan’s work stems from the body, specifically the relationship between visual, kinesthetic, and cognitive experience, and the way these different knowledge systems affect one’s perception of reality and sense of self.

Early on, she began investigating the relationship between photography and sculpture. In these works, photos became sculptural, often acting as skins of sight/site, attempting to inject sensory experience back into the image.

These explorations later gave way to an investigation of the temporal aspects of the body and somatic experience, privileging elasticity and performance over a static entity. Many of these sculptures used performed gestures as a system of movement, in which Grinnan’s body was cast in all possible positions, so the entire motion was seen as a singular form that simultaneously occupied cinematic space.

These mapped motion systems are often in conversation with mapped data systems from different ideological frameworks, ranging from astrology charts to EEG diagrams. These diagrams are often translated into instruments, sounds, scores, and choreographies, favoring experiential and somatic interpretations of the information.

In her most recent work, the figure dissolves, often operating as a latent form performed by nonhuman systems. This work explores the resonances and dissonances between epistemological and visual ecologies, seeking to decenter human agency in favor of an enmeshment between human and nonhuman worlds.

Her work has been exhibited widely at venues including the Whitney Museum in New York, MOCA in Los Angeles, the MAK Center in Los Angeles, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Diverse Works in Houston, Modern Art Oxford in the UK, the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, and Kunstverein Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin. She was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial and, most recently, she was included in Atmosphere of Sound at UCLA as part of the Getty Museum’s PST Art and Science Collide. Grinnan is the recipient of a City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship (2019), Center for Cultural Innovation Artist’s Resource Completion Grant (2012), California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2010), AXA Artist Award (2007), John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (2006), and Pollock-Krasner grant (2006). Her work has been written about in numerous publications, including Artforum, Contemporary Art Review, Frieze, Flaunt, the New York Times, and the LA Times. Grinnan's work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond; and the Nevada Museum of Art. She is represented by Commonwealth and Council in Los Angeles.

Katie Grinnan's Personal Website