At age 26, this Charlotte artist is trying to set herself up for long-term success
Katherine Boxall isn’t waiting for someone to tell her she’s an artist. Outside validation doesn’t fuel her practice, and she’s not interested in fitting into other people’s definition of art.
“I’m an artist because I paint,” said Boxall, 26. “Anytime I’m able to show my work or have people collect my work, that’s incredible and I love it. But for me, it’s about making the artwork.”
Her debut show in Charlotte is also Boxall’s first solo gallery exhibit. It’s at New Gallery of Modern Art in uptown and runs through Dec. 18. It features 11 pieces, nine newly created for the exhibition.
She’s exhibited 15 times in the past two years in cities such as New York, Ottawa and San Francisco. A solo show is different: “As an artist, the opportunity to have a solo show is the very beginning of your career,” she said. “It’s having someone entrust in you, only you. There’s a little bit of pressure there.”
Boxall can share a fresh perspective and vocabulary with the viewers, said Irina Toshkova, owner of the New Gallery of Modern Art.
“The very first time I met Katherine at her studio I fell in love with Katherine’s work,” Toshkova said. “It immediately brought to mind some of my favorite contemporary artists: Marilyn Minter, Katharina Grosse, Adrian Ghenie.”
Paying the bills
Like everyone else, Boxall needs to pay the bills. She manages by working in Charlotte’s art community. When she first moved to Charlotte in 2018, Boxall served as the marketing and media manager at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation for one year. She painted at night and on the weekends. When she had the opportunity to work part-time coordinating marketing at Jerald Melberg Gallery in South Charlotte this fall, she took the position. It allowed more time to paint.
“I’m going to be an artist until I die,” she said. “You need to think about the long game of your artwork. How do I set up my practice to last? How do you set yourself up for success long term?”
Working within the arts community is more than just making money for Boxall. It provides experience with profit and nonprofit organizations, networking opportunities, and connects her to inspiring people, she said.
“I think exercising the other part of my brain is helpful for my work,” she added. “It connects you to the people in your network; you get to learn from people in the industry who are working at it from a different angle; you see art from a different lens.”
Charlotte made sense
She grew up in Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. Boxall started Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 2015 studying printmaking, painting and lithography. She worked for a fashion designer in Toronto for eight months to raise money for graduate school. When she was accepted into the San Francisco Art Institute, she jumped at the chance for a master’s in fine art. After a 2018 graduation she moved to Charlotte.
Charlotte made sense to Boxall: affordable studio space in a West Charlotte warehouse and access to the local art community and galleries. It helped that her partner lives here too.
“Being an artist is not just a local business, it’s an international endeavor,” Boxall said. “And the internet flattens that. So, wherever you can be to create your best work, you should be.”
Her process
Sylvat Aziz, an associate professor at Queen’s University in Ontario told Boxall’s class that “real painters paint big.” She encouraged her students to stand, rather than sit. She talked about how the whole body needed to be engaged in the process. Boxall created her first large paintings in her fourth year at Queen’s.
Boxall has continued to paint on large canvas – 6 feet by 8 feet – using acrylic, oil, pastels, spray paint, and conté (chalk) to sketch.
The canvas is stretched on the ground. Then she pours house paint from a bucket onto the canvas. She rotates the piece to get the paint to move across the canvas. Once the form is how she wants it, Boxall lets it dry. She returns to the piece to spray paint or color block certain areas, adding depth to the background.
“It’s a process of planning, knowledge, experience, accident, intuition, impulse,” she said. “You’re just making all these decisions and with paint, you have to move quick.”
At the Mint
Boxall’s art will be part of The Mint Museum Uptown’s “2020 Constellations” series in January. Work by Charlotte artists will be installed in the museum walkways. Jennifer Sudul Edwards, chief curator and curator of contemporary art at the Mint contacted Boxall first.
“When I saw Katherine’s giant canvases in her studio, I had one of my favorite but infrequent reactions: I don’t know why I love this, but I love this,” said Sudul Edwards. “Her paintings’ luscious texture, beautiful expanses of color, and overwhelming scale make that stunning first impression. I was determined to help get those abstractions out of her studio and into the world.”
‘Hairflip’
When: Boxall’s first solo gallery exhibit, now through Dec. 18, by appointment
Where: New Gallery of Modern Art, 435 S. Tryon St., Suite 110
Details: http://newgalleryofmodernart.com/ or 704-373-1464
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This story was originally published November 26, 2019 at 11:00 AM.