Artist to Know: Kate Blacklock - Inside Art With Michael Rose

Artist to Know: Kate Blacklock - Inside Art With Michael Rose

 

Few Rhode Islanders can say that they have work in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, but interdisciplinary maker Kate Blacklock is one of them. A visionary artist with an impressive career, she will be the subject of a solo exhibition at The WaterFire Arts Center from June 5 - July 6. This show, titled Inside Out, is an ideal opportunity to learn more about one of the state’s most talented creative minds and to see a remarkable series of her recent paintings.

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Blacklock received her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz and came to Rhode Island in the 1980s to earn her MFA in Ceramics from RISD, where she has been an instructor in the Industrial Design Department for over twenty years. In addition to RISD, she previously taught at the Art Institute of Chicago and Louisiana State University. She was also an Artist in Residence at the French Manufacture National de Sèvres, where some of the world’s most sought after porcelain is created. Alongside The Met, Blacklock’s art is also in the collections of The RISD Museum, The Fuller Craft Museum, The Mint Museum, and the Musée National de le Céramique outside Paris.

 

 

Throughout her career, Blacklock has explored a range of media. The early part of her artistic production was defined by her skill in ceramics, but she has gone on to make photographic work, pieces that utilize a scanner, as well as paintings, and artworks that blur the bounds between all of these. She is an intrepid and inventive artist. At WaterFire, Blacklock will share a collection of paintings that leverage digitally collaged photographs as a jumping off point for figuration and narrative subject matter.

 

Reflecting on the interdisciplinary nature of her practice, Blacklock says, “As an artist, my work is motivated by ideas, curiosity, and challenges. When I feel that I am repeating myself or have explored a topic or process to the point that it becomes rote or boring, I move on. These cycles can last for years. Sometimes this involves returning to a medium I have previously worked with, such as digital photography. There is always something that I have learned from one series that I can bring to another, even if the medium, reference, or idea differs. Alternating between different projects helps maintain a fresh perspective.”

 

 

In a bright and airy converted garage on the East Side of Providence, Blacklock creates paintings that are embedded with memory and substance. The scenes she renders are also drawn from her own home and her broader neighborhood, so visitors to her WaterFire exhibition might find familiar landmarks hidden in her brush strokes.

 

The collection of paintings that Blacklock is showcasing at WaterFire have deep personal meanings. She is excited about the opportunity to share her work in the space. The artist explains, “The Waterfire Arts Center is truly a unique and vibrant place for the arts in our city and the gallery is a beautiful space to view and sell art - something that is particularly lacking in a city and state full of so many artists. But most of all it is particularly meaningful to me to show this large body of new work within my community. It is also, I must say, a bit unsettling and exposing, the fact of which is reflected in one of the layers of meaning in the exhibition title, ‘Inside Out’.”

 

 

Although she has earned national and international praise, Blacklock has remained engaged in the local scene. She was a subject of the NetWorks documentary series and served as Chair of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. Asked what it means to be an artist living and working here, Blacklock answers, “I have lived in Providence longer than anywhere else and I love living here. The paintings in the exhibition are set in both the interior and exterior landscapes of my life now. Because I grew up in New York City, I still view the suburban landscape around me as mysterious. It acts as the perfect foil and another character in my narrative.”

 

 

In well painted canvases, Blacklock is probing personal narrative in scenes that are at once familiar and dreamlike. A curious maker with an enviably broad set of skills, Blacklock is an artist to know.

 

 

Kate Blacklock’s solo exhibition Inside Out is on view at the WaterFire Arts Center from June 5 to July 6, 2025. The opening reception is Thursday, June 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. On Thursday, June 26, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Blacklock will give a talk about her work and process. Plan your visit HERE.  

 

Learn more about Kate Blacklock at www.kateblacklock.com or follow her on Instagram via @kate.blacklock.