THE WHITE
HOUSE CHINA
KATHLEEN CLARK
March 15 – April 20, 2024
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The back room will showcase images from Kathleen Clark’s book and series, The White House China. The photographic and mixed media reconstructions are based on the collection of dinnerware at the presidential residence in Washington, DC. Depictions of presidential china are based on the official state and family china collections of the presidents they represent or that of their predecessors.
“Aiming to correct certain historical omissions, I began this project in the spring of 2016 to explore the iconography and incongruity of an America established through violent conquest yet framed by elegant theory.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Los Angeles based artist, Kathleen Clark, makes images exploring social justice, history and culture. A National Endowment for the Arts recipient, she has an MFA from the University of California, Irvine and has exhibited at Southern Exposure and Photoeye, San Francisco; COCA, Seattle; The Woman's Building, Los Angeles, Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA) and The Portland Art Museum. The archives of her collective mixed media performance and installation works with The Girl Artists (1979-1988) are included in the collections of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute.
Her mixed media photography series, The White House China garnered the following awards: 2022 Lensculture Critics Choice 22, Winner; 2020 Critical Mass, Top 50 Finalist, Photolucida; 2020 Honorable Mention, Center Santa Fe Project Launch Grant; 2020 PX3, Prix de la Photographie Paris, Honorable Mention
Additionally, she founded and directed several Los Angeles photo and art galleries, was Photo Director at Los Angeles magazine and LA Weekly. She also served as a faculty member at USC and Art Center College of Design, where she continues as a visiting lecturer.