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Exhibition Title: "Beyond O'Keeffe: Contemporary Artists in Wisconsin” Location: Monarch on Main, 110 S. Bristol Street, Sun Prairie, WI 53590 Exhibition Dates: June 9th-July 4th, 2025 Artist Reception: Friday, June 20th , 5-7pm Curator Talk: Friday, June 27th, 7-8pm, Location TBD Curated by Rebecca Kautz, www.rebeccakautz.com Exhibition Statement: Born in Sun Prairie, Wi, Georgia O’Keeffe is celebrated as being one of the great modernist painters of the 20th century. O’Keeffe’s well known abstract botanical paintings secured her a place in art history and her art world fame solidified her cultural significance here in the City of Sun Prairie. “Beyond O’Keeffe” is an exhibition of exceptional, living contemporary artists working in Sun Prairie and neighboring counties of Wisconsin. This survey of artists showcases the diverse, vibrant talent of the contemporary art landscape here in the state of Wisconsin. “Beyond O’Keeffe” is curated and organized by Sun Prairie artist Rebecca Kautz with support provided by event partners ,including; Sun Prairie Chamber of Commerce, Prairie Music & Arts, Monarch on Main, and the Sun Prairie Mural Fest planning committee. Prospectus and Submission information found here: 
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 Thanks to everyone who made it out to see my Solo Show, Jumping From Trains at Arts & Literature Lab. Here are some installation images from the exhibition that closed at the end of August 2024. Thank you so much to Paul Krainak with Bad At Sports for the thoughtful writeup about the show. Its wonderful for people to take the time to see the show and especially exciting when they are engaged enough to sit and write a reflection of the experience. Krainak's insights tuned in on several ideas that are in my head when making a painting. Krainak states "Rebecca Kautz’s solo painting show at Madison’s Art Lit Lab combines an idiosyncratic exploration of personal subjects buried in a palpable vernacularism that seems to be composed by the way images are spoken – a sort of soluble concrete poetry. What’s remarkable is how her improvisational figuration, unhinged from the mimetic fatigue still alive from the halcyon days of “Bad Painting,” plays catch with facsimiles across the “Lab’s” enormous galleries." You can read the full blog essay by following the link below.       
Exhibition Statement: Jumping From Trains implies a compulsion to change direction, to abandon a path for a new way. I was awaken at night by the sound of a train passing through town and was immediately transported to my childhood bedroom. This was a common sound heard at night growing up in rural Illinois. Cultural theorist, Bell Hooks describes this same experience of train whistles bringing her back to childhood in her essay titled “Habits of the Heart” in “Belonging: A Culture of place”. Hooks describes being a child awaken in the night by the sound of trains -setting her mind to wonder about all the places she might go as she grew. For me leaving home, jumping on a train in search of somewhere better-somewhere to belong , was all I wanted to do. At 17, I ran away on a one way train to Texas with no return ticket or plan for when I arrived there. Still now I am searching. Incorporating durational site specific performance, painting, and sculptural practices I explore the multiple approaches to reckoning with issues of the heart and mind. Making works in response to mental states, cultural events, activism, or simply to create a lasting sentiment as evidence that I was here. This creative collection rather than a strict singular vision, elevates the process and value of tangents, multiplicity, and exploration. ‘Drawing a blank’ or losing your ‘train of thought’ occurs when thinking is derailed, generally if an obstacle or distraction crosses the mind or eye. Jumping from Trains signals the erratic, potentially hazardous endeavor of switching directions or choosing another path. Hooks ends her essay with “where I began is also where I will end”. When we seemingly lose ourselves in the directions or distance we go, there is a path to return to ourselves.  Images: Top: Awakened By Night Trains, 20x24inches, acrylic on canvas (2024), Image Bottom: Shame Project/Genius Patch:Distress Signal, durational performance(artifact), 2018-2020
 Solo Exhibition “Homes of Strangers” opens Friday May 3rd, at Prairie Arts Center in Princeton, IL. Opening reception will be Friday May 3rd, from 6-8pm.
PAC is located at 24 Park Avenue East, Princeton, IL, 61356. The gallery is open 1-3pm on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the month of May. Homes of Strangers is a collection of new paintings primarily inspired by visits home to Princeton, IL. The frequent visits home to be with family and spend time with aging parents sparked the desire to document this place and time. The historic homes on the blocks seen on walks around my parents’ home become stoic acquaintances whom I have seen for a lifetime but yet they are still like strangers to me. Homes like bodies, enclose whole universes of experience. Despite attempts at empathy, we do not know the lives they have lived. The works utilize observation of people and places known and unknown to the artist. Touching on notions of intimacy as well as the unknowable other represented in the closed doors and windows of the homes of strangers.  Saturday, April 20th from 6-9pm I will be live painting at the Sun Prairie Public Library Love Your Library Gala event. This ticketed after-hours event benefits the Library Expansion and Renovation Project at Sun Prairie Public Library. I will be painting live at the event and the painting will be auctioned off at the end of the evening. Tickets are $60 and available to purchase on the library website: sunlibfoundation.org Pictured is a vintage Rowe Pottery Works ceramic urn that has inspired the painting for the event. Rowe Pottery Works is a functional pottery shop in Cambridge, Wisconsin that has been around since 1975. This lovely green glazed crock will be filled with sun flowers, muted blue-green eucalyptus sprigs, and blush pink tea roses and white lillies. This floral still-life will be painted live at the event on a 16x20 inch canvas. Come watch me paint and support the Sun Prairie Public Library Renovation and Expansion Project! August, 12th 2023 Door County Festival of Fine Arts, 9-4pm Waterfront Park, Sister Bay, Wisconsin I will be participating in the 20th Annual Door County Festival of Fine Arts on Saturday, August 12th. The art festival takes place in Sister Bay, Wisconsin from 9-4pm in Waterfront Park in scenic downtown Sister Bay. I will be selling original paintings and archival prints. This is a rare opportunity to purchase work directly from me because I don't often participate in art festivals. I'm looking forward to enjoying views of the bay while sharing my work with you. If you are in the Door County and surrounding area please stop by and say "hi"! Information about the participating artists is attached.
 Ellison Bay Cottage, archival print, 11x14", 2022
On Wednesday, February 8th at 5pm CST I will be giving a lecture about my interdisciplinary art practice. Beginning with earliest influences and covering my feminist street performances in Chicago, IL in the late 90's.
I'm very happy to share that I am starting a new position with University of Wisconsin-Madison as Lecturer of art. I will be teaching intermediate and advanced painting this Spring. It is a dream to be back at the UW-Madison and to be teaching painting at a world class institution and my alma mater. Working alongside so many amazing faculty and previous mentors. I am also joining Finlandia University as a remote Adjunct Faculty member teaching Art History II, Gothic to Early Modern art online. Finlandia University is located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It's going to be an exciting Spring semester with many new opportunities and challenges. I'm ready for the experience and growth to come. As a side note, during my undergraduate studies at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1997-2001), my required Art History survey course used Marilyn Stokstad's "History of Art" textbook. It's surreal to now be teaching art history using that text. Since I was in grade school I wanted to be a college art instructor. It took a lot of work to be here at this moment. I almost gave it all up to be an undertaker.  |
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