BIO

Katherine Hunt is a multimedia visual artist whose practice intersects Social and Cultural Psychology, Experimental Ethnography, and aleatoric methodologies across diverse media, including painting, moving image, fiber, and installation. Drawing from interdisciplinary research, her work critically interrogates how cultural forces shape perception and the subtle processes through which these forces are internalized. By prioritizing process over product, Hunt's practice challenges conventional perceptual frameworks and destabilizes habitual modes of seeing and interpreting. Her non-linguistic and non-narrative visual and tactile forms encourage active viewer engagement, positioning the spectator not as a passive recipient of meaning but as an integral participant in the work's conceptual development.

Hunt’s artistic inquiry is underpinned by an ongoing engagement with theory and practice that resists fixed conclusions. Her work is informed by experimental methodologies engaging in dialog with social epistemology and contemporary theoretical paradigms. In this way, she critiques the dominant paradigms of cultural production, offering a space for alternative forms of knowledge-making and questioning established systems of meaning.

Hunt’s work has received recognition through grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. It has been presented in solo, two-person, and group exhibitions in the US and internationally. Ki Smith Gallery in New York City currently holds a collection of her work.

Hunt holds a BA in Cultural and Social Psychology, Indigenous American Studies, and Gender Studies from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis/St. Paul, where she was mentored by Anishinaabe educator and activist Winona LaDuke. She earned an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, specializing in Curatorial Criticism and Archival Research in Avant-Garde Film, conducting thesis research at La Cinémathèque Française in Paris. Her academic background equips her to critically engage with her artistic practice through a multidisciplinary lens, incorporating historical and contemporary perspectives on visual culture.

Beyond her artistic and scholarly pursuits, Hunt has extensive professional art department experience in the film and TV industry, having worked as a prop designer, set builder, and art director. These roles honed her expertise in the research and preservation of ephemera, which inform her tactile, site-specific installations. Her work with the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo community in northern New Mexico exemplifies her commitment to integrating cultural, ecological, and artistic preservation by creating an heirloom garden that serves creative and cultural functions.

Hunt’s scholarly and professional experiences include her appointment as a Program Facilitator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, where she led initiatives in the public art studio division. She now divides her time between New York City and northern New Mexico, where she continues developing her moving image and studio-based practice.