Employing rich dyes and embroidery, Katarina Riesing (b.1982) subverts the delicacy of silk with depictions of the human body. Using herself or those closest to her as her subjects, Riesing meditates on the relationship between the body and the garments that adorn it: Floral lace patterns mingle with pocked, pimpled, and hairy skin, woodgrains rhyme with the flesh’s topography, and shrouds of stripes form barriers between the viewer and the secondary sexual characteristic of the body. Working on a handheld hoop, Riesing maintains a close proximity to every square inch of the silk throughout the process of embroidery, infusing each figurative form with an attention to textural abstraction. The finished pieces complicate idealized notions of her chosen medium while refusing to cede the artist’s penchant for pure formal experimentation.

Riesing received her M.F.A. in 2009 and her M.A. in 2008 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, and prior received her B.A. in Fine Art and Anthropology from Smith College, Northampton, MA (2005). She has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York, NY (2023 & 2020); Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY (2022); Downtown Gallery, Madison, WI (2017); Seligmann Center for the Arts, Chester, NY (2015); and SOHO20 Gallery, New York, NY (2010). She has been invited to residencies most recently at NARANJO 141, Mexico City, MX (2024); Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Deer Isle, ME (2021); Cite International des Arts, Paris, FR (2018); and Saltonstall Artist, Ithaca, NY (2017). Riesing currently lives and works in Tucson, AZ.

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