Kate Citrin is an oil painter in Evanston, IL. She holds her BFA from Grand Valley State University and has additional training from Old Town School of Art, Vitruvian Fine Arts Academy, and Drawing America. She has been painting since 2002 and has shown at numerous galleries across the United States including an exhibit curated by the Guerrilla Girls. She also creates commissioned portraits (both pet and people). Her artwork has been featured in commercial arts including advertisements, album design, and packaging, including international runs. Her awards include Finalist and Overall Honorable Mention from Wild Heart Gallery, Coachella Valley, USA. 

Kate’s work centers radicalized empathy, subversion, and resilience. Her focus on the unseen & unfairly distributed labor of women and marginalized people is shown by layering traditional portraiture with contemporary imagery. 

Portraiture is a self-promotional tool of the elite, aggrandizing themselves and their work, displaying an individual’s achievements such as a family business or pet project. Kate points the tool where it properly belongs, to individuals from marginalized communities or “well-behaved women.” These are the people who form the bedrock of society’s support structure, culture, and innovation. Kate uses portraiture to highlight and elevate traditionally overlooked individuals’ acts of import and intrinsic value. 

Kate’s technique begins traditionally, using her own stretcher bars, hand-stretching and priming the canvas, and painting figurative works using a process where the painting is created four times (sketch, color study, tonal study, grisaille) before the first layer of color is applied. For many pieces, she interviews her subjects asking questions like, “What event would you consider most formative to who you are?” to get a feel for their lived experience. Alternatively, she develops a narrative based on her own lived experience as a female, Jew, and friend trying her best. 

Once the representational portrait is complete she takes a sharp departure from tradition and layers in charcoal, gold, textured gesso, and/or pattern to convey the narrative. The portraits lionize the necessity of creativity, rebellion, and self-love in all communities.