Katie Hovencamp: Home Im”Prove”ment

About the Exhibition

Domestic spaces create stability and familiarity. Historically these spaces have been designated for women. Expectations of a tidy home and having dinner ready have become obsolete as women have gained more rights. However, traditionalists want to go back to assigning a gendered space for those who identify with being feminine. This notion would be retroactive and could marginalize many groups of people and take away their rights. This exhibition utilizes aspects of domestic spaces and objects and subverts them as a protest. The works in this exhibit challenges returning to a time where a woman’s identity was to be a housewife and whose sole purpose was to manage the household and family matters.

About the Artist

Katie Hovencamp received her BFA from Arizona State University in 2009 and her MFA from the Pennsylvania State University in 2014. Hovencamp has exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions within the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Her work has been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, Chicago Reader, and several online and print publications. She was the recipient of the Outstanding Student Achievement Award for Contemporary Sculpture in 2014 and the University Graduate Fellowship at the Pennsylvania State University in 2012. Hovencamp has participated in residency programs at Vermont Studio Center, Serde Interdisciplinary artist group in Latvia, and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland.

In 2016, she was awarded an artist residency with International Sculpture Center at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ. She has taught at various institutions such as the Edna Vihel Center for the Arts, Totts Gap Art Institute, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg Area Community College, Keystone College, Cedar Crest College, Northampton Community College, and Moravian University.