Biography for Catherine Vitebsky

The materiality of her practice mirrors these shape-shifting processes through her bronze casting methods in which figurative forms are enhanced by experimental burnouts of organic matter, such as feathers and local flora. This method allows for an intense level of detail which ties the final work inextricably to the landscape from which it is derived.
Vitebsky graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2009 and continues to practise in East Anglia and abroad.
Vitebsky is a figurative sculptor working predominantly in bronze and casting her own work.
She is preoccupied with transformation and with the anthropomorphic: the place where animal and human intersect, both in folklore and as it relates to the human condition. Having travelled as a child with migrating reindeer herders in Siberia, her creative consciousness is flooded with these narratives.
The materiality of her practice mirrors these shape-shifting processes through her bronze casting methods in which figurative forms are enhanced by experimental burnouts of organic matter, such as feathers and local flora. This method allows for an intense level of detail which ties the final work inextricably to the landscape from which it is derived.
Vitebsky graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2009 and continues to practise in East Anglia and abroad.

Vitebsky is based in both Suffolk and Cambridge, UK, travelling internationally for her practice. She has exhibited widely in the UK and USA (solo) together with collaborative projects and symposiums in Thessaloniki, Greece and Enschede, Netherlands. A former Chelsea fine art student, Vitebsky is also traditionally trained in the lost wax process having studied under Suffolk sculptor Laurence Edwards FRBS in the late 1990’s-early 2000’s.
Education:
2009 First Class Hons BA, Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London
Professional accolades and collaborations:
2019-2023 Ongoing international collaboration with Museum of Classical Archaeology (University of Cambridge) and Archeological Museum of Paros, Greece. Involving cross- disciplinary symposium, series of workshops, exhibitions and eventual publication.
2020 Working Artist Purchase Award. Tacoma, USA
2018 The Whistle Project 'Transmedia' project. Thessaloniki, Greece
2017 Shortlisted for judges’ choice, Winter Salon, Rye Creative Centre, UK 2015 Selection for Woodbridge School Sculpture Garden exhibition, UK
2014 Residency: Building and running mobile bronze foundry, public workshops and demonstrations and participation culminating in group show, Alde Valley Spring Festival, Suffolk, UK
2010 Public sculpture commission: The Atrium, Cambridge, UK
2009 Awarded 6 month studio space by Work Space Group at E1 Studios, Whitechapel, UK
2008 Travel grant and residency award: Borders of Perception. Conference and group show. Enschede/Munster, Netherlands/Germany
2005 – 2006 Awarded 6 month EU & Arts Council grant, as part of the Making Art Work scheme, culminating in solo show. Suffolk, UK
2002 – 2003 Residency at Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust, working on designs for Independent Quarry Regeneration Program Landform Design: Arts Council, National Lottery-funded quarry regeneration project. Dorset, UK
Selected Exhibitions:
2020 Unit 19: An Exhibition of Sculpture. Group show, Halesworth, UK
2018 ‘Celebrating 5 Years: The Artists’ Return’. Group show. Indiana, USA
2017 Winter Salon exhibition. Shortlist exhibition, Rye Creative Centre, UK
2016 Zoomorphs: Experiments in Bronze by Cat Vitebsky’. (Solo show & publication). Art Space Gallery, Vincennes. Indiana, USA
2015 Upstair Gallery, Norfolk, UK
2014 Outdoor sculpture exhibition, Sculpture Garden, Woodbridge School. Suffolk, UK
2014 ‘Cornucopia’: Suffolk, UK
2014 Alde Valley Spring Festival: Suffolk, UK 2010 The Atrium: Solo show. Cambridge, UK 2007 Art Armanti: Online gallery exhibition
2008 ‘Twelve Steps Down’: Curated by Valentina Ferrandes. London, UK
2008 ‘Attack of the Antiflats’: Et Cetera Gallery, London, UK 2006 ‘Silo’: Solo show. Woodbridge, UK
2007 in Concert: Outdoor video projection on Tate Britain, London, UK
2005 Making ArtWork: Ipswich, UK
Collections:
Art Space Vincennes, Indiana USA
Working Artist Prize collection, Washington USA
Alde Valley collection, Gt Glemham, UK
The Netherhall School, Cambridge UK
Private collections: UK, USA, Norway, Germany, Russia and Greece
Publications:
Zoomorphs: Experiments in Bronze by Cat Vitebsky. [Andrew Jendrzejewski & Amy DeLap] 2016
Family Living publication, Illinois, US 2017