Catherine Reinhart

Catherine Reinhart

Ames, Iowa

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Bio

Catherine Reinhart is an interdisciplinary artist based in Iowa. Reinhart creates fiber work and conducts social practice with abandoned textiles around themes of domestic labor, connection, and care. She received her BFA in Integrated Studio Arts in 2008 from Iowa State University. In 2012, she completed her MFA in Textiles from the University of Kansas. Her works have been exhibited locally, regionally, and nationally. She is the recipient of numerous local, state, and national grants. Reinhart was honored as a 2020 Iowa Artist Fellow, an Artist-in-Residence at Terrain Residency (2021), a recipient of the Alex Brown Foundation’s Residency (2022), and an Artist-in-Residence at the West Cork Arts Center in Ireland (2023).

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Artist Statement

We tend to our families and communities by providing comfort and care through consistent and repetitive actions. Through fiber art, sculpture, and socially engaged projects with abandoned textiles, I draw parallels between mending and stitching by hand and the repetitive nature of domestic and community care. As artist and mother, I am both archivist and field hand, creating studies in the accretion of domestic life and cataloging its labors. I disassemble, reconfigure, and alter domestic textiles. With Inland Surveying, I map the territory of my home with the visual language of topographic maps. Land Labours and Neon Fleeces were inspired by the landscape and people of Ireland and made during my recent international artist residency. My work contributes to relevant and timely discussions reframing the value of care and connection to our neighbors and possessions. I give voice and hold space for stories of repair, loss, and kinship.

Catherine Reinhart, Inland Surveying, 2021, Fiber with free motion stitching and found quilt border, 39 x 67

Inland Surveying is a green and white fiber work in six sections created using my children’s dirty laundry. The discarded items were the genesis for sewn marks mimicking topographical maps. It is an imagined and quilted landscape, a map of the home-place.

Catherine Reinhart, Land Labors, 2024, Wool blanket, found Hi-Vis jacket, and hand-stitching, 22 x 30

Land Labours is a wall-mounted fiberwork made from found materials, vintage wool ‘Dripsey’ blankets from West Cork, Ireland, and a hi-vis jacket donated by a deep sea welder. These works center on the Irish landscape and chart the invisible labor of manual workmen. It was created at my 2023 artist residency in West Cork, Ireland, and influenced by my time there.

Catherine Reinhart, Neon Fleeces, 2024, Wool blanket, spray paint, and hand-piecing, 24 x 31

Neon Fleeces is a wall-mounted fiberwork made from found materials, vintage wool ‘Dripsey’ blankets sourced from West Cork, Ireland, and neon spray paint. This abstract hand-pieced work is created from cut offs and remnants and inspired by the Irish landscape dotted with fluorescent painted sheep. It was created at my 2023 artist residency in West Cork, Ireland, and influenced by my time there.