BIO / STATEMENT

Kim Van Someren Kim Van Someren is the Instructional Technician in Printmaking + Painting + Drawing at the University of Washington. She holds a MFA in Printmaking from the University of Washington (2004) and a BA from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse (2002).
She has taught Printmaking at Pratt Fine Arts Center, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Frye Art Museum, the Seattle Arts Museum, Pilchuck, and the University of Washington.

Van Someren has exhibited locally and nationally; her work included in several collections including Microsoft, New York Public Library, the University of Iowa, the University of Washington, and Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Van Someren is represented by J. Rinehart Gallery, Seattle, WA.


JRinehart Gallery

Statement
As a maker, the pandemic forced questions of craft, fragility, function, and essentiality. My work has always been architecturally driven. I became aware of the design of essential and functional structures as signs of dominance, an absolute, and congruency. I found this in structures in farming, spirituality, air and warcraft. There, I found an intent for the flat and sensible surfaces of forms in our world; I became interested in changing that.
Understanding that metaphorical gender and intentness of structure can be altered through mark making has been in the forefront of this body of work.

Through my work and processes, I come to peace with the mistakes, irregularities, and gentle stitches, one mark at a time.
Many of the structures I explore are deprived of sound foundation, believability, and even context; it allows for surface to sway and fold like paper or billboards. They resonate lace, cursive handwriting, and nets. They allow for structure to be gentle like water, relaxed, and animated.

I intend for surface to became playful, textures to become fragile, and structure to become disrupted.