Katherine Duclos
Much of Katherine Duclos’s school years were spent staring out through the class window and daydreaming while her teachers’ voices blurred into a mix of light, colour, and textures in her mind. In this series of paintings on felt-covered school bulletin boards, Duclos depicts the outdoor spaces of her childhood from memory. Viewers can participate in this process of recollection and discovery by lifting the painted window screens that cover the paintings.
“I revisit my childhood with the new information that I am Autistic, just like my kids. I now find that the traits that were once perceived as character flaws, are in fact lenses I can use to see myself and the world more accurately. I want my work to be tactile because my children and I experience the world and process information through touch. In order to become the mother my children’s mythology demands, to rise to the occasion of raising these heroes, I must go back and uncover my true origin story.
About the Artist
Katherine Duclos (b. 1980, Massachusetts) received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from Pratt Institute in 2012 in Brooklyn, NY. She moved from New York City to Vancouver, BC in late 2017 with her family, where she maintains an active multi-media studio practice delving into concepts of motherhood, identity, neurodivergence, materiality, and more. Her work is a reflection of her engagement with her family, environment and her experience as a gifted and disabled neurodivergent woman and mother.
In 2023, Duclos collaborated with The Lego Group for their Miami Art Basel pop up, Center for Creative Flow, at the W Hotel. In just six weeks she made over forty-five square ft of abstract color constructions mounted on wooden panel for the weekend event, that will go on to live at the new LEGO group headquarters in Massachusetts. They also produced a documentary, Small Tiny Starts, about Katherine, the collaboration, her Lego process, and her family, which debuted in 2024 on their YouTube channel. Katherine regularly exhibits her work across the US and Canada and her work can often be found in several galleries, and locally at the Vancouver Art Gallery Rental and Sales. She has worked as a teaching artist for organizations such as Studio in a School in New York City, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Richmond Art Gallery.