Kate Burke
The Song I Sang As You Swam Away
Kate Burke
Digital Storage 101: Scrollin’ past dreams, schemes, and memes trying to find myself in everything
48 x 36 inches, 2024
The Song I Sang As You Swam Away
Exhibition Dates: January 9 - February 8
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 9, 6 - 9 PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, January 25, 3 PM
The Swan Coach House Gallery is pleased to present Kate Burke in The Song I Sang As You Swam Away, a solo exhibition curated by Swan Coach House Gallery Artistic Director, Jacob O’Kelley.
The Song I Sang As You Swam Away contemplates love, resilience, and self-discovery in a world existing between physical and digital realities. Kate Burke reframes traditional teachings through a personal lens to confront the impacts of environment, technology, and spiritual evolution on the human psyche. Through Burke's journey, she explores finding purpose and contentment in the digital age.
The works, rooted in labor-intensive craft using ceramics, textiles, and beads, intertwine childhood memories with the artist’s reflections on the internet. In each piece, carefully sourced materials emphasize the origins and significance of each item. Burke's mosaics, assemblages, and poetic fragments evolve organically, celebrating the process of retooling one’s experiences. Together, she reimagines these seemingly disparate elements to create a contemporary iconography that bridges ephemerality and permanence.
The Song I Sang As You Swam Away offers a space for contemplation - a reminder that evolution, both spiritual and personal, is a continuous journey. Here, the viewer is invited to find solace in the vibrance of handcrafted icons and to reflect on the balance between holding on to oneself and embracing the necessity of change.
Kate Burke
Kate Burke (b. 1994) is an Atlanta-based musician, artist, and performer. After receiving her BFA in Fabric Design in 2016 with honors from the University of Georgia, she moved to Atlanta in 2017 and shortly thereafter immersed herself within the Atlanta art community. Her solo career has developed steadily since moving to Atlanta, with solo and group showings throughout the United States in spaces such as the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Atlanta Contemporary, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the Dalton Gallery at Agnes Scott, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Greenville, Free Market Gallery, ATHICA, whitespec, ArtFields, Waiting Room Art, and MINT Atlanta. Kate has received distinguished awards such as the ArtFields Category Award for Textiles in 2019, and has a growing list of fellowships including being a two-time Hambidge Center Fellow, a former member of the Atlanta Contemporary Studio Artists, a resident at Long Meadow Artist Residency, and a Leap Year Artist with MINT in Atlanta, GA. Kate is currently a part of the Creatives Project Residency in Atlanta, GA through 2025.
Jacob O’Kelley
Jacob O’Kelley is an Atlanta-based arts administrator. He is the Artistic Director at Swan Coach House Gallery. Recent independent public art projects include SITE, a site-specific art activation across 12 acres of The Goat Farm Arts Center during Atlanta Art Week. O’Kelley’s previous curatorial exhibitions include Currents and Interconnect at Echo Contemporary, in-habit at Westobou, Offerings at Offerings, and Local Stories with Dashboard and A&E Atlanta. He recently completed an Arts Administration Residency with Hambidge Arts Center.
He co-founded ShowerHaus, an experimental, curatorial project space at The Goat Farm Arts Center in 2018. ShowerHaus curated multiple exhibitions at their gallery in addition to shows at Swan Coach House Gallery and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. They are perhaps most remembered for their public art project, The High Rise Show, a four-floor exhibition in a skyscraper in Downtown Atlanta.
He received his BFA in Drawing and Painting from Georgia State University. He is also a contributor to Burnaway and Art Papers.
This exhibition is sponsored by the Forward Arts Foundation in memory of Bridget Dobson, Joyce Ferris, and Carolyn Vigtel.