Caitlin McCormack
Contact Information
Studio & Gallery
1901 S. 9th St 504-G Philadelphia, PA 19148
Please contact artist for purchases, commissions, etc.
Fiber Art/Sculpture & 3D
Archived Works
Artist's Biography
Caitlin McCormackis a Philadelphia-based fiber artist who works primarily with crocheted cotton thread that is dredged in a mixture of glues, stiffened, and positioned in the form of animal and humanoid skeletons, which are showcased in velvet-lined shadow boxes and under glass display domes. She earned a BFA in Illustration from The University of the Arts in 2010, and originally pursued illustration as a career, but has found her footing, and a sense of fulfillment, in the creation of these sculptures, which convey her thoughts regarding memory, and how the authenticity of a recollection becomes distorted over time.
Caitlin's body of work, which originates as sketches drawn from memory after observing osteological specimens, transforms throughout theprocess of its construction, and becomes a hybrid of recognizable, skeletal forms, and the artist's own visual biases. She has taken part in gallery and museum exhibitions across the US, as well as in Japan, the UK, Germany, Australia, and The Netherlands, and receives representation from Paradigm Gallery + Studio in Philadelphia.
Artist's Statement
The act of stiffening intricately crocheted cotton string with glue produces material that is structurally similar to delicate bone tissue. The string utilized in this process can be viewed as the basic cellular unit of fabrication, and by utilizing media and practices inherited from my deceased relatives, I aim to generate emblems of my diminishing bloodline, embodied by each organism's skeletal remains.
With a majority of my work, I employ pseudoscientific principles and antiquated methods to generate material, in an attempt to impart a visual indication that something has transpired in a fabricated reality. I aim to construct the likenesses of creatures suspended in a state of perpetual dormancy, by way of crocheting - a practice that is based upon active proliferation. Little by little, this process permits me to construct a very personal taxonomy of creatures symbolizing my memories and experiences.
The material out of which my work is composed acts as an alchemical conduit between the garment and the clothesline; it acknowledges the latter as a symbol of the ancestry and familial bonds which have greatly informed my work. I wish to give the impression that a garment has disintegrated and reformed itself, warped by the passing of time, in the image of a tenacious animal's remains, a reflection on both the persistence of memory and the significance of cloth and thread in the realm of human experience.
Selected Exhibitions
Solo and Two-Person
2022
Blockbusting, Practice Gallery, Philadelphia PA
2021
Dirty Mirror, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville VA
With Dance Doyle
2020
Seed Vault, Talon Gallery, Portland OR
With Allison Sommers
2019
Granny<, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
See You All in There, Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2018
Changing Death (Lazarus Taxa), Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA
Antibeast, Last Rites Gallery, New York, NY
2017
Tracing the Remains, The Thomson Hall Gallery at the Mütter Museum, Philadelphia, PA
With Sabrina Small
Lazarus Taxa, Paradigm Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Home, Again, Antler Gallery, Portland, OR
2016
Lostwithall, Lu Luz de Jesus, Los Angeles, CA
Group
2020
Look Again, Rich Ramsay Studios, Brooklyn NY
Curator: Brianna Scotti
Immortal: Interventions in Time, Automat, Philadelphia PA
Curator: Jacqueline Yvonne Tull
2021
Dog Park, Petty Cash, Brooklyn NY
Curators: Jacob Rhodes and Kristen Racaniello of Field Projects
Summerhouse, HOT • BED, Philadelphia PA
Denatured, Partners and Son, Philadelphia PA
Curators: Jacob Rhodes and Kristen Racaniello of Field Projects
Tondo, SpokeArt, San Francisco CA
99 Spring Street Superchief Gallery, NYC
2020
Seasonal Repression, Field Projects, New York, NY
RAIR Trash Bash, Philadelphia, PA
Sustainable artist residency fundraiser
Phantom Narrative, Scott Center Gallery at Carroll College, Westminster MD
Social Distancing The Royal Society of American Art, Brooklyn NY
Here and Now, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN
Curators: Joseph Zimmerman and Ken Hashimoto
Room for One, NAPOLEON, Philadelphia, PA
Structures, Park Towne Place, Philadelphia, PA
Microdose, Booth Gallery, New York, NY
Let's Go Away For Awhile, Richmond CA
Curator: NIAD Art Center
2019
No Cure For Mourning, Stockton University Art Gallery, Galloway, NJ
Re-Beginning, Thinkspace, Los Angeles, CA
Seven Sins, Practice, Philadelphia, PA
Ruin, The Royal Society of American Art, Brooklyn, NY
National Prize Exhibition, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
Saga, Paintguide, Hong Kong, China
Animalia, Ann Street Gallery, Newburgh, NY
2018
Here/Now, Lawrence Art Gallery, London, UK
Meet Me At Delancey/Essex, Hashimoto Contemporary, New York, NY
Juxtapoz Clubhouse, with Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Miami, FL
Psycho Salon, Superchief Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017
AltRealities, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Mesa, AZ
Tangled - Fiber Art Now, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
Delusional, Jonathan LeVine Projects, Jersey City, NJ
Don't Wake Daddy XII, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg, Germany
The Happening, Local Project Art Space, Long Island City, NY
2016
Wolves, Magic Mirrors, and Spinning Wheels - The Anatomy of Fairy Tales, Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA
A Curious Nature, The Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
Monsters in America, One Mile Gallery, Kingston, NY
Methods of Collection, Esther Klein Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Aestheticism, Vanilla Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
The Thread of Art, Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Mother Nature, 212 Arts, New York, NY
2015
Exquisite Echoes, Gray Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Opus Hypnagogia, The Morbid Anatomy Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Into the Wild, Joseph Gross Gallery, New York, NY
Rijswijk Textile Biennial, Museum Rijswijk, Rijswijk, Netherlands
Wild, Cornell Art Museum, Delray Beach, FL
Exquisite Form, Allen's Lane Art Center, Philadelphia, PA
Guts, Light Grey Art Lab, Minneapolis, MN
2014
Impossible Books, Philadelphia Sculpture Gym, Philadelphia, PA
The Clothesline Muse, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA
Art Inspiring Art, Sundance Channel Headquarters, New York, NY
2013
Cell Mates, Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ
Industrialism, The Art Factory, Paterson, NJ
The Sublime Revisited, Ann Street Gallery, Newburgh, NY
2012
Art From Found Objects, The Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ
Animal Show, Pterodactyl, Philadelphia, PA
Hung, Little Berlin, Philadelphia, PA
Height x Width x Depth, Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Philadelphia, PA
Art Fairs
2021
SCOPE Art Show, Group Booth with Mortal Machine Gallery, Miami, FL
Group Booth
SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Solo Booth curated by Jacob Rhodes, New York, NY
SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Group Booth with InLiquid, New York, NY
As artist and co-curator
2020
SCOPE Immersive, Virtual Group Booth with Mortal Machine Gallery, Miami, FL
SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Group Booth with InLiquid, New York, NY
2019
SCOPE Art Show, Group Booth with Mortal Machine Gallery, Miami, FL
2018
Littletopia/ LA Art Show, Group Booth with Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Los Angeles CA
2017
SCOPE Art Show, Group Booth with Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Miami FL
ARTMRKT, Group Booth with Red Truck Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016
SCOPE Art Show, Group Booth with Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Miami FL
Littletopia/LA Art Show, Group Booth with Red Truck Gallery, Los Angeles CA
2013
SELECT Fair, Group Booth with Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Miami FL
Selected Bibliography
2021
Giovina, Madi and Niles, Tiffany, "Fields." Perennial Press, pg. 27.
Cover image, The Shoutflower, Issue 2, May.
2020
Massé Marie-Madeleine, "L’art de Fil." Editions Gallimard, 2020. pg. 139.
Joruk, Natalia, “Artist Vs. Artist.” Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Issue 31, pg. 22-31.
Swinkels, Dorothé, “Werk van Caitlin McCormack: beetje morbide en grillig mooi.” Textielplus, July 20.
Grizzly Grizzly, ed. Angela McQuillian, “Scratch 'N' Match.” In Dialogue, Vol.1, April-July, pg.16.
Blakeslee, Heather, “Flora and the Rhizosphere.” Root Quarterly Vol. 1, Issue 4, pg. 37.
2019
Fox, Lyndsie, "The Delicate Macabre: An Interview with Caitlin McCormack." Juxtapoz, October 1.
Madara, Melissa, "Creation, Time, and the Authenticity of Memory: A Conversation with Caitlin McCormack." Venefica Magazine, Vol. 4, pg. 54-59.
Popova, Ekaterina, "Caitlin McCormack." Create! Magazine, Issue 15, pg. 50-53.
Sierzputowski, Kate, "Crocheted Skeletal Figures Preserved Behind Glass by Caitlin McCormack." ThisisColossal.com, February 20.
2018
Smith, Beth, "On the Dark Side." Fiber Art Now, Vol. 8, pg. 29-30.
Morrow, Justine, "Ossified Forms, Forest Whispers." Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Issue 022, pg. 68-71.
"Artist Spotlight: Caitlin McCormack." Booooooom, 4/20.
2017
Krieger, Deborah, “In 'Lazarus Taxa,' Caitlin McCormack Crochets the Beautiful Macabre.” WhiteHot Magazine, 12/15.
Velez, Janai, "Selvedge: Designer Edge." Homespun Magazine, No. 175, pg. 18-19.
Meier, Allison, "Responding to Human Remains with Crocheted Skeletons and Beaded Organs." Hyperallergic.com, February 15.
2016
Billock, Jennifer, "Don't Miss These 11 New Museum Exhibitions This Winter." Smithsonianmag.con, December 2.
"Caitlin T. McCormack." Hey! Magazine, Issue No. 25, pg. 36-39.
Martin, Lisa, "An Interview with Macabre Crocheter Caitlin McCormack." Makezine.com, April 15.
2015
Nagle, Aubrey, "Caitlin McCormack's Creepy Crochet Creatures Weave a Touching Tale." PhillyVoice.com, October 26.
Buerrman, Caro, "Caitlin McCormack's Delicate Crocheted Animal Skeletons." Hi-Fructose.com, October 21.
"Painting Glance." image credited to artist, Bust Magazine, October/November, pg. 96.
Erickson, Christine, "Artist's Creepy Crochet Is Actually Sweet Tribute to Grandparents." Yahoo.com, August 4.
Yeung, Peter, "Creepy Crochets - In Pictures." TheGuardian.com, August 1.
Sierzputowski, Kate, "Decaying Animal Skeletons Crocheted From String by Artist Caitlin McCormack." ThisisColossal.com, July 17.
Mier, Victoria, "Philadelphia Artist Experiments With the Threads of Memory." The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, May 22, pg. 1: Home and Design.
2014
Starreveld, Marjolein, "Cehaakte Leegte." Textiel Plus Magazine, Alkmaar, Netherlands, Issue 230, pg. 26-28.
Awards and Honors
2022
Peter Bullough Foundation Residency Juror, Summer-Fall 2022 cohort
2021
Recipient, Joseph Robert Foundation Grant
2020
Recipient, Joseph Robert Foundation Grant
Recipient, Philadelphia Sculptors We Love Our Members Grant
2018
Guest Juror, William H. Ely Thesis Exhibition, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA
2015
Best Fine Artist award finalist, Philadelphia Geek Awards
2010
Thornton Oakley Medal
Ted Carey Award Nominee
Residencies
2022
The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
March session
2021
Peter Bullough Foundation, Winchester, VA
November-December session
ChaNorth, Pine Plains, NY
April session
Teaching and Lectures
2021
Excellence Through Classics Live
Lecturer and virtual fiber art workshop instructor
2020 - Present
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia PA
Adjunct Professor
2020
Paradice Palase, Brooklyn NY
Virtual studio tour
Secret Arts, Atlas Obscura
Virtual lecture and studio tour
Venture Cafe, Philadelphia PA
Virtual lecture
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA
Alternative media illustration workshop
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia PA
Lecture and portfolio review
2019
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA
Alternative media illustration workshop
2018
Hussian College of Art and Design, Philadelphia PA
Adjunct professor
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA
Alternative media illustration workshop
2017
Ars Moriendi: Visions of Death Made Beautiful, The Mütter Museum, Philadelphia PA
Lecturer
Our Greatest Fear, “Articulate with Jim Cotter” on PBS
Interviewee
Philly Touch Tour, The Mütter Museum, Philadelphia PA
Lecture/workshop for differently-abled museum attendees
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA
Illustration Round Table panelist
Commissions
2011
Album cover and disc tray illustration, The Minor Arcana, Emotional Alchemy
Publications
2012
"Featured Artist," CRED Magazine Issue Two, May 2012, pgs. 26, 64, 65 and 67
2011
322 Review: Issue No. 9 Rowan University, Summer 2011
Edge Magazine, alumni spotlight with photograph, Philadelphia PA, Winter 2011, pg. 34
Education
2019
Ceramics Studio Intensive: Marguerita Hagan Studio, Philadelphia PA
2010
University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA
BFA, Illustration
Recipient of the Thornton Oakley Medal for Achievement in Creative Arts
