Kathy Clifford

Kathy Kosht Clifford (1948 – 1993) was a painter, poet and mixed media sculptor, known for her expressionist style coming out of the Cass Corridor art movement in Detroit, Michigan.

Education Clifford attended Michigan State University from 1969 to1970 for an Independent Painting Study. She received a B.A. of arts in printmaking from Olivet College in 1971, and then a M.F.A. in drawing from Wayne State University in 1974. She moved her studio to the Atlas Building near Detroit's Eastern Market, where she would maintain a studio for twelve years. Clifford also worked at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, Michigan for ten years.

Bonesteel, in his New Art Examiner review of an exhibition at N.A.M.E. gallery in 1979, stated that Clifford and her exhibition partner, Nancy Pletos, displayed extraordinary expertise in realizing their (different) visions in wood construction. Her work might incorporate tiny lights or other kinetic additions that could be plugged in. Miro described Clifford's work as the intersection of reality and fantasy, or holding an intense moment of a real experience, such as an automobile crash while Fraga describes works that depicted accidents at the moment of impact.

In Clifford's exhibition catalog, ‘It’s My Party’, commemorating her life and her works, Dennis Nawrocki stated her favorite subjects were locales rife with danger and places of escape of adventure. Clifford also was a painter, working in different mediums, some that depicted landscapes, locations, or replications from her old textbook or picture postcard collections. Nawrocki compared Clifford's style to works by early post modernists like Georgia O'Keeffe and Milton Avery.

Kathy Clifford died at the age of 44 in 1992. She suffered from a degenerative connective tissue disease her entire life.

Solo exhibitions

1995: Kathy Clifford: A Retrospective, Detroit Focus Gallery, Detroit, MI

Group exhibitions

1991: Structure/Paint, Detroit Artists Market, Detroit, MI 1990: Art for Life, Galleria, Southfield, MI 1988: Holland Counsel for the Arts, Juried Exhibition, Holland, MI 1987: Atlas to Zemco: Art in the Artist Market Neighborhood, Detroit Artist Market, Detroit, MI 1986: Wayne State University in Michigan - An Alumni Exhibition, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 1986: G.A.L. 17th Annual Fine Art Exhibition, Traveling Exhibition 1984: Conflicts/Configurations, Willis Gallery, Detroit, MI 1984: Four Invited Artist, Detroit Artist Market, Detroit, MI 1983: 8th Michigan Biennial, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI 1982: Parallel Currents: American Folk and Fine Art, Detroit Artists Market, Detroit, MI 1981: GUTS: Detroit in the 80s, Herron School of Art, Indiana University-Perdue 1979: Painted Wood Works: Kathy Clifford and Nancy Pletos, N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago, IL 1978: Two Girls: Kathy Clifford and Vivian Wanless, Feigenson Gallery, Detroit, MI 1977: Two Detroit Girls, Willis Gallery, Detroit, MI 1977: Three Artists, Willis Gallery, Detroit, MI 1977: Michigan Sculpture ’77, Macomb Community College, Sterling Heights, MI 1976: Forsythe II, Forsythe Building, Detroit, MI 1976: The Michigan Printmakers, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 1975: Alice Caskey, Susan Crane, Kathy Clifford, Willis Gallery, Detroit, MI 1974: Anything on Paper, Detroit Artists Market, Detroit, MI 1974: MFA Completion Exhibition, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 1973: All Michigan II, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI 1973: Art on Paper, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 1973: MFA National Drawing, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI

Grants

1988: Michigan Counsel for the Arts, Creative Artist Grant 1981: Michigan Counsel for the Arts, Creative Artist Grant