Kate Ericson

Kate Witte Ericson (1955–1995) was an American artist whose work dealt with sociocultural issues, and it often manifested as public art.

Life and education The daughter of Herbert Arthur Ericson and Alma Elaine (née Witte) Ericson, she was born in Manhattan in 1955.

Ericson received a B.F.A. in sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1978, and took classes at the University of Texas at Austin in 1979.

Ericson died of brain cancer in 1995. While many of her endeavors used outside public spaces or site-specific installation strategies in traditional gallery spaces, she also produced objects and drawings as well. She is said to use "a style that featured provocative accumulations of materials and ideas, many of them involved with architecture, American history and the economy."

Dennis Cooper of Artforum wrote, "What distinguishes Ericson and Ziegler's collaborative efforts—and, to a lesser extent, the pieces they’ve been making individually since 1980—is their unabashed continuation of deconstructive modes at a time when so many intellectually inclined artists are romancing viewers with imagery again."

Selected exhibits

1991, "Camouflaged History", Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, S.C. Ste-specific works dealing with Charleston’s history. 1988, "America Starts Here", Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania 1988, "The Conscious Stone", the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.