“Meet the Artist” with Letha Wilson and Kate Steciw

On Thursday, February 22, we welcome Letha Wilson and Kate Steciw to “Meet the Artist” night at CPW. Both artists will present their artwork and share their unique perspectives on photography. Kate and Letha met over 15 years ago through a group exhibition, and became fast friends ever since. Letha describes Kate as the ‘yin to her yang’ as they continue to develop work expanding the medium of photography to the very edges. Kate’s background working with Photoshop and digital photography has lead to her current practice using real-life collage elements in vibrant, surreal and color-filled wall works. Letha’s practice has analog roots in landscape photography with a sculptural approach, working with materials such as concrete, steel and drywall.  Both artists are located in Upstate New York, on either side of the Hudson, and are Geminis who drive Subarus and love their dogs. This event will be live-streamed on CPW’s YouTube Page at 6 pm.

Join us every Thursday evening at CPW, when we host illuminating talks with local and visiting artists. “Meet the Artist” allows the public to get to know new work, to hear about artistic processes, and to meet friends and other local artists. The evening takes place at CPW’s gallery at 474 Broadway in Kingston, NY. It is free and open to the public. Coffee, tea, and snacks are served. “Meet the Artist” is made possible by a generous grant from the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation.

Letha Wilson is known for combining photography with industrial materials like concrete and steel. Wilson cuts, tears and shapes her photographs, pushing and pulling the prints into place and then encases portions of the composition in cement. She explores the magnetic pull of the American West, alluding to landscape’s intrinsic role in our own myths of reinvention, endless possibility, and inevitable promise.

Letha was born in Hawaii, raised in Greeley, Colorado, and currently works in Craryville and Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from Syracuse University, and her MFA from Hunter College in New York City. Letha attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2009, and her artwork has been shown at many venues including Mass MoCA, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Columbus Museum of Art and the International Center for Photography.

Letha’s work has been reviewed in Artforum, Art in America, the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Artsy among others. Letha has been awarded artist residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Yaddo, MacDowell, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Sharpe -Walentas Studio Program. In both 2019 and 2014 Letha was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Photography. In 2023 Letha had solo exhibitions at the Richard and Dolly Maas Gallery at Purchase College, State University of New York, and GRIMM Gallery in London, UK.

Kate Steciw holds a BA from Smith College and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Steciw has exhibited extensively in New York and abroad in group exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, Hauser & Wirth, Johannes Vogt Gallery, and Eyebeam. She has had solo exhibitions at Higher Pictures Gallery (New York), Christophe Gaillard Gallery (Paris), Brand New Gallery (Milan), Neumeister Bar-Am (Berlin), Annarumma Gallery (Naples), and Levy Delval (Brussels). Her work has been featured in Artforum, Art in America, and Interview magazine. Steciw lives and works in upstate New York.

Banner images courtesy of Letha Wilson (left), and Kate Steciw (right).