Carolyn Case

Carolyn Case creates intricate, richly pigmented paintings and pastel drawings where studio and domestic life merge into one. Impulsive, direct drawings from her home transform into active, colorful abstractions, distilling the artist's daily world. Submerged bits of fringe, wrought iron, writing, and pan handles become clues of the day's events. Employing a call-and-response technique between herself and the artwork, Case sees homelife, comprised of countless domestic routines, as an active, creative world. She honors every element of life's daily grind by maintaining the energy of each streak, scratch, and blur that meets her panel or paper. Spaces are articulated out of a selection of suggestions; a leaf or a palm frond, a bisected jug, a coffee cup stain, or notebook paper page, a composition framed by an abstracted heaping kitchen sink. Case’s layers sometimes recall lace or quilts, and previous works drew from travels to Japan, Iran and India, with references to Andean textiles, miniature painting, and the earnest doodles of teens. Each mark is both a call and a response that collectively builds into a resounding chorus.

Originally from California, Carolyn Case earned her MFA from MICA's Mount Royal School of Art in Baltimore, MD, and her BFA from California State University in Long Beach, CA. Her solo exhibitions include Lux Art Institute, CA; Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA; Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK; Western Michigan University; Loyola University, MD; McLean Projects for the Arts, Washington, D.C.; and the Art Registry in Washington D.C. She has participated in two-person and group exhibitions at the Delaware Museum of Art; A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; La Loma Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Blah Blah Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Art Enables, Washington, D.C.; Goucher College, MD; Interloc Projects, ME; The Parlour Bushwick, NY; Joyce Goldstein Gallery, Chatham, NY; and John Fonda Gallery, Baltimore, MD. Residencies include the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Lux Art Institute, CA, the School 33 Art Center in Baltimore, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Kanoria Centre for the Arts in Ahmedabad, India.  Reviews include ArtForum, Artspiel, ArtNews, Woventale Press, Hamptons Art Hub, the Baltimore Sun, New American Paintings, Metro Weekly, and Two Coats of Paint. She has received the Bethesda Painting Award and is a 2018 and 2017 Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize Semi-finalist.