Kaitlin Pomerantz with collaborator John Broderick Heron (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Selections from “River Prints” series (Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, PA), 2014
Paper dipped in found river surface, mounted on flood debris
Dimension variable
Artwork description:
An ongoing project with collaborator John Broderick Heron, River Prints capture river surface flotsam and oils onto paper using marbling technique (without adding any oil or pigment to the water). Pomerantz and Heron have created river prints in most of Philadelphia and New York’s waterways, as well as select international destinations. The prints are impressions of a particular moment in the life of ever-changing, and ever-polluted water bodies in urban waterways.
Artist statement:
Kaitlin Pomerantz’s mixed media artworks, site based installations, and writings capture questions and concerns around material use and land use in a Western-based extractive capitalist economy, offer uses for “waste” while positioning “waste” as a cultural mirror, and invite the public into conversations and actions of memory, witness and agency.
Artist Bio:
Kaitlin Pomerantz (she, they) is a visual artist, writer and educator in Philadelphia (Lenape land). Her 2D and 3D artworks, site specific installations, and socially engaged projects explore the psychology of place, power and ethics around land use and misuse. She has completed residencies at RAIR Philly, Lugo Land (Italy), Sangam Centre (India), and Land Art of the American West through Texas Tech University. In 2019 she received the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia arts award, the Woodmere Museum Yvonne M. Kelly Memorial Prize for Mixed Media and the Faculty Venture Fund Artist Grant from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 2017, she participated in Monument Lab, a city-wide arts festival in Philadelphia. She has most recently exhibited work at Jack Hanley Gallery, NY and Atelier Gallery, Philadelphia, and her work is held in private collections nationally. Pomerantz’s reviews, essays, and creative writing appear in Title Magazine, Art Blog, Bomb, Hyperallergic, and Imaginations Journal, among other publications. She was managing editor of Title Magazine from 2016-2020. Pomerantz teaches art studio, seminar and writing courses at University of Pennsylvania, Pafa and Moore as an adjunct, and is part of the United Academics of Philadelphia union, working towards sustainable conditions for academic laborers and students. Pomerantz’ pedagogy encompasses social justice frameworks and student-driven inquiry, rooted in experiential learning. Pomerantz holds degrees from the University of Chicago (BA, art history) and the University of Pennsylvania (MFA, interdisciplinary art), and is currently working towards a Masters in Education at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education through the HGSE Grant and Humphrey and Hunnewell Arts in Education Scholarship. Pomerantz lectures widely on her arts practice, and research topics including: land art and ecology, public art and monuments, and pedagogy/arts education. Pomerantz also supports a family oyster farming project (nursery and habitat restoration project) in Pipes Cove, Eastern Long Island (Lenape, Cortchaug, Shinnecock). http://www.kaitlinpomerantz.com/