Kati Kirsch, Bridge Tally Card, 2024. Oil on linen, 48 x 32 in / 121,9 x 81,3 cm
Why do we love things that bear a glow of grime? Why are some so intensely somatic in their effect on us? As Jun'ichiro Tanizaki describes in his 1933 essay, In Praise of Shadows, we love that which is marked with "soot and weather, things that bespeak a sheen of antiquity that call to mind the past that made them." 1
Attuned to the thingness of things, Kati Kirsch envisions a vital materiality through which the experience of loss is conjured through surreal fragmentation—where cinders become unsettled, flickering with a suspicious nostalgia. Kirsch's paintings and ceramics often begin as meditations on found and familiar objects. A tender, playful sense of care is garnered in Kirsch's interest in didactic ephemera, embedded in the seemingly frivolous, ornate details and whimsical designs of found paper goods such as a bridge tally card, a children's how-to book, illustrated calendar cards, rose-contoured bookmarks.
These are objects that wear their purpose on their sleeves, organizational tools and emblems of "progress," instructing with a particular logic, which Kirsch relentlessly warps, teases, unravels. Her practice is alive with the residue of this process. A tattered towel, a pencil pouch, a weekly calendar: these are not afterthoughts but anchors, markers of a method that privileges the ordinary and insists on an inner vitality. In the compositions that emerge in this space, this process, a keepsake becomes a question, an object for meditation, an immanent thing that speaks, its “decorative” details bridging the timeless and urgent.
Hinting at multiple realms of interiority in the painting School zone Company Alphabet flashcards - the letter q (2024), a head peaks out of a checkered quilt, its translucent geometry revealing a strange infrastructure beneath, an intestinal jumble, warm and pulsating, illuminated by a rosy glow. Gridded motifs function as permeable, structural topographies bridging the seen and unseen, an interplay unfolding further in Days of the week (2024) in which an uncanny index of temporality is recorded on found flashcards and craft paper, resulting in a compartmentalized imagining of temporality.
Informed by a keen sense of materiality, Kirsch gathers both found and self-fabricated media into assemblages that feel both broken and reborn—shattered, unstitched, and veiled by molten patinas. Her work recalls the layered intricacy of a paper accordion doll—terrains of infinite depth emerge, inhabited by overlapping figures yearning to unfurl. These teeming, immanent forms resist the pull toward tidy resolution, offering compositions that remain, instead, elaborately intractable.
– Lauren Guilford
Kati Kirsch (b. 1999, Washington, D.C.) lives and works in New York. She received her BFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, in 2022. Solo and two-person exhibitions: “Paper Goods,” Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024; “The Secret Life of Doubters” (two-person), Kaleidoscope, Brooklyn, 2024; “Wish Fulfillment Chart,” Bahnhof Gallery, New York (2023); “How Could it Be Once Was” (two-person), Pratt Institute, Brooklyn (2022). Selected group exhibitions: “Internet Personality Quiz,” Popgun, Brooklyn (2024); “Angel Tech,” Gern en Regalia, New York (2024); “Growing Down,” Known Studio, Los Angeles (2024); “Museum of I Love You So Much,” Quarters Gallery, Los Angeles (2023). Exhibitions as curator: “Ice Cream House,” The Alcove, Brooklyn (2024); “Cold Email”, Osseous Matter (online) (2023); “Selective Attention Test,” Private location, Brooklyn (2022). She has been a Teaching Artist in Residence at The Oxbow School, Napa, CA (2024) and a guest lecturer in Professional Practices at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn (2024). “Paper Goods” is the artist’s first solo exhibition on the West Coast and her debut with Cheremoya.
1 Tanizaki, Jun'ichiro, In Praise of Shadows (1977): 11.
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Kati Kirsch, School zone Company Alphabet flash cards - the letter q, 2024. Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in / 121.9 x 121.9 cm
Kati Kirsch, School zone Company Alphabet flash cards - the letter q, 2024 (detail). Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in / 121,9 x 121,9 cm
Left edge: Kati Kirsch, Wishing Well in silver - blue, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, nail polish, metal charm, 9 1/2 x 5 x 4 in / 24,1 x 12,7 x 10,2 cm
Left (above): Kati Kirsch, Hat, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, nail polish, 2 1/2 x 6 x 6 in / 6,3 x 15,2 x 15,2 cm
Left (below): Kati Kirsch, Hat stand, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, nail polish, adhesive, ribbon, 5 3/4 x 4 x 4 in / 14,6 x 10,2 x 10,2 cm
Right: Kati Kirsch, Rose shoe, 2024. Earthenware, glaze 3 3/4 x 2 1/2 x 5 in / 9,5 x 6,3 x 12,7 cm
Right edge: Alarm clock vase, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, nail polish, knit, rocks, 5 3/4 x 5 x 4 in / 14,6 x 12,7 x 10,2 cm
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Kati Kirsch, Bridge Tally Card, 2024. Oil on linen, 48 x 32 in / 121,9 x 81,3 cm
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Kati Kirsch, Bridge Tally Card, 2024 (detail). Oil on linen, 48 x 32 in / 121,l9 x 81,3 cm
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Left: Kati Kirsch, Door tag / Identification necklace, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, plastic binder sheet, thread, found object, ribbon, 18 x 15 x 1 in / 45,7 x 38,1 x 2,5 cm
Right: Kati Kirsch, Emergency Purse, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, nail polish, 4 x 4 1/2 x 2 in, 10,2 x 11,4 x 5,1 cm
Kati Kirsch, Pencil Pouch, 2024. Fabric, buttons, thread, nail polish, paint (framed), 9 1/2 x 11 1/2 in / 24,1 x 29,2 cm
Kati Kirsch, Melon, orange, lemon, almond., 2024. Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 in / 101.6 x 127 cm
Kati Kirsch, Melon, orange, lemon, almond., 2024 (detail). Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 in / 101,6 x 127 cm
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Kati Kirsch, Raw Materials, 2024. Oil on linen, 28 x 14 in / 71,1 x 35,6 cm
Kati Kirsch, Pom pom house, 2024. Oil on linen, 40 x 30 in / 101,6 x 76,2 cm
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Kati Kirsch, Days of the week, 2024. Found cards, watercolor, oil, brown craft paper (framed), 10 x 30 in / 25,4 x 76,2 cm
Kati Kirsch, Days of the week, 2024 (detail). Found cards, watercolor, oil, brown craft paper (framed), 10 x 30 in / 25,4 x 76,2 cm
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Left: Kati Kirsch, Shoe with laces, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, nail polish, 3 1/2 x 2 x 4 1/2 in / 8,9 x 5,1 x 11,4 cm
Right: Kati Kirsch, Prize ribbon animal with candy cane tail, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, bedazzles, nail polish, 10 3/4 x 10 1/2 x 1 in / 27,3 x 26,7 x 2,5 cm
Kati Kirsch, Sewing Kit, 2024. Oil on found fabric, 30 x 30 in / 76,2 x 76,2 cm
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Kati Kirsch, Prize ribbon, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, nail polish, rocks, 10 x 5 1/2 x 1 in / 25,4 x 14 x 2,5 cm
Kati Kirsch, Night, 2024. Oil on linen, 60 x 48 in / 152,4 x 121,9 cm
Kati Kirsch, Night, 2024 (detail). Oil on linen, 60 x 48 in / 152,4 x 121,9 cm
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Kati Kirsch, Bookmarks, 2024. Oil on linen, 32 x 54 in / 81.3 x 137.2 cm
Kati Kirsch, Bookmarks, 2024 (detail). Oil on linen. 32 x 54 in / 81,3 x 137,2 cm
Left: Kati Kirsch, Clog with red nose, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, 5 x 5 1/2 x 2 3/4 in / 12,7 x 14 x 7 cm
Right: Kati Kirsch, Sun hat in blue / punctuation mark, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, 4 x 4 x 1 1/2 in / 10,2 x 10,2 x 3,8 cm
Kati Kirsch, Bucket in blue with key, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, key, 3 x 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 in / 7,6 x 3,8 x 3,8 cm
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Kati Kirsch, July 2023 Calendar, 2024. Oil, watercolor, pen, paper, collage, frame, 14 1/4 x 11 1/4 in / 36,2 x 28,6 cm
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Kati Kirsch, Emergency Cup, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, 6 x 3 x 5 in / 15,2 x 7,6 x 12,7 cm
Kati Kirsch, Geodesic Dome, 2024. Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in / 121,9 x 121,9 cm
Exhibition View of Kati Kirsch: Paper Goods, Cheremoya, Los Angeles, 2024-25
Kati Kirsch, Bells, 2024. Oil on found fabric, 24 x 18 in / 61 x 45,7 cm
Left: Kati Kirsch, Buckle Shoe, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, nail polish, 3 x 1 1/2 x 6 in / 7,6 x 3,8 x 15,2 cm
Center: Kati Kirsch, Wishing well in plaid, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, 9 x 3 1/2 x 3 in / 22,9 x 8,9 x 7,6 cm
Right: Kati Kirsch, Prize ribbon shoe, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, 3 x 2 1/2 x 6 in / 7,6 x 6,3 x 15,2 cm
Kati Kirsch, Girl with Glasses, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, ribbon, bedazzles, nail polish, 17 x 7 1/2 x 3/4 in / 43,2 x 19,1 x 1,9 cm