Carolyn Case

Carolyn Case creates intricate, richly pigmented paintings and pastel drawings where studio and domestic life merge into one. Impulsive, direct drawings are transformed into active, colorful abstractions, distilling the artist’s daily world. Case's recent work in ceramic framing extends her drawings outward from the picture plane into our three dimensional space. 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.

Case lives and works in Baltimore, MD. She 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. Case is in the permanent collection at The Baltimore Museum of Art. She has mounted recent solo exhibitions at Taymour Grahne Projects in London, UK; Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, VA; Asya Geisberg Gallery in New York City, NY; Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI; and Lux Art Institute in Encinitas, CA. She has participated in two-person and group exhibitions at Taymour Grahne Projects; La Loma Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Blah Blah Gallery, Phildelphia, PA; Interloc Projects, Rockland, ME, The Silber Gallery at Goucher College in Baltimore, MD; Art in Embassies, at the United States Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua; People & Places at the BWI Airport in Baltimore, MD. Case has participated in residencies at the Lux Art Institute, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the School 33 Art Center, the Kanoria Centre for the Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. Publications such as Artforum, ARTNews, The Baltimore Sun, New American Paintings, and Two Coats of Paint featured her work. She recently completed a residency at Yaddo in Fall 2024.