Kate Hamilton
Kate Hamilton is a sculptor, costumer, and designer based in the mid-Hudson Valley. Her practice explores the architecture, experience and nature of garments in work ranging in scale from miniature to room-sized. Hamilton’s kinetic sculpture has been installed in many museums, galleries and alternative spaces in the USA. Her costumes and sets have appeared in art performances, events, and festivals in New York, Berlin, Canada and Zurich. She is a founding member of Bluebird Productions, Zurich.
Life Sized 
After a childhood in which I spent many hours at serious play - making clothes and orchestrating dramas for a large collection of paper dolls drawn by my illustrator mother - my life’s die must have been cast.
Ever since, I have worked in various ways with that familiar layer of identity we each add on and remove every day: my subject is clothing. I approach this through art, costume, product and form.
In these pieces, I use an archival glassine paper that allows me to explore the fragile and ephemeral nature of life. Because the paper is translucent, light can enter and pass through. Like X-rays, each garment’s seams, wrinkles and folds are visible and established. The absent body remains present but in a morphed dream shape.
Think: shifting identity, memory and the nature of play in the universe. And think of the dream stream.
Oversized
Resume
EDUCATION
Brown University, Providence, RI BA(1979)
Additional Study in millinery, draping, patternmaking, puppetry:
Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI)
Parsons School of Design (NY, NY)
Fashion Institute of Technology (NY, NY)
SOLO EXHIBITS
2015 Ulster County Community College, Stone Ridge, NY
2014 Tunxis Community College, Farmington, CT
Thompson Giroux Gallery, Chatham, NY.
2013 Hillman-Jackson Gallery at Simon’s Rock College, Great Barrington, MA.
2012 Koussevitzky Art Gallery, Berkshire Community College, MA.
Roberts Gallery, West Kortright Centre, East Meredith, NY.
2011 Unison Market Street Gallery, New Paltz, NY.
GROUP EXHIBITS
2016 Ulster County Community College Muriel Kotler Gallery, Stone Ridge, NY
Green County Council on the Arts, Catskill, NY
Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ
Greene County Art Center, Catskill, NY
2015 Thompson Giroux Gallery, Chatham, NY
Greene County Art Center, Catskill, NY
Westbeth Gallery, NYC, NY
Heritage Center, Poughkeepsie, NY
Roxbury Arts Center, Roxbury, NY
KMOCA, Kingston, NY
Greene County Art Center, Catskill, NY
2014 Thompson Giroux Gallery, Chatham, NY
KMOCA, Kingston, NY
Roxbury Arts Center, Roxbury, NY
Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ.
2013 Islip Art Museum. East Islip, NY.
KMOCA, Kingston, NY.
2012 Brik Gallery, Catskill NY. Curator Richie Timperio
KMOCA, Kingston, NY.
2011 Concordia College, Morehead, MN
2010 Unison Gallery New Paltz, NY.
2009 George Segal Gallery, Studio Montclair, Montclair, NJ.
2007 BAG Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
2006 Roberts Gallery, West Kortright Center, East Meredith, NY.
Samuel Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY.
PROJECTS/FESTIVALS/INSTALLATIONS
2017 (upcoming) The Seven Deadly Sins (Weill/Brecht) Collaboration with Valerie Arias and Claudia Blersch. Refugee oriented, interruptive multi-media production.
Rigiblick Theater, Zurich.
2015 The Other’s Other O+Festival Kingston, NY. Collaboration with Tona Wilson.
2014 It’s a Big World in There (Second installation) Micro-Festival of Unfinished Puppetry, Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.
It’s a Big World in There, C H R C H Project Space, Cottekill, NY. Interactive performance of residency project with invited artist collaborators Tona Wilson, videographer, and Jonathan Elliott, composer.
2013 La Voix Humaine Collaboration with Valerie Arias on one-woman telephonic opera (written by Poulenc to a Cocteau monologue). Creation of collapsible room-sized shirt set, and costumes. Rigiblick Theater, Zurich.
Dada Spill, Widow Jane Mine, Rosendale, NY. Collaboration with Marian
Schoettle with guest artists. An event to shine light on the absurd but real transformation of abandoned mines into high security document storage and luxury housing. Event included Wrench (Act 1 and 2).
Wrench (Act 1) ArtsEmerson, Boston, MA. Sleeping Weazel Productions.
Elana Greenfield, playwright. On-going prop/costume/plot collaboration.
2012 COTA store window installation. New Paltz, NY.
Masters on Main, Store window installation. Catskill, NY.
2011 COTA store window installation. New Paltz, NY.
Wrench (Act 1) First installment (see above). Sleeping Weasel Productions, Factory Theater, Boston, Mass, 2012.
2010 COTA store window installation. New Paltz, NY.
BACA store window installation.
Beacon, NY.
2006 Inside/Out. Chashama, NYC. Designed costumes for store window project performed by Laura Barnett and Sandra Spannon. Wired, gravity defying, transparent 19th century aprons with feathered angel wings.
2005 Inside/Out, Gallery Tristesse, Berlin. (See above)
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2014 Womens Studio Workshop with C H R C H Project Space. One month
Work period resulting ‘It’s a Big World in There’.
2012 Womens Studio Workshop: Joint residency with Marian Schoettle
to create original paper costumes for mine performance summer 2013.
NYFA Mark ’12 artist.
PRESS (partial)
Dec 2015
March 2015 ArtScene Video interview on WebTV, published by Chronogram Magazine.
Http://www.chronogram.com/hudsonvalley/artscene-web-tv-episode-3-title/Content?oid=2295778
July 20, 2012 Delaware County Times, Cheryl Petersen.
Aug 4, 2011 New Paltz Times Almanac, Ephemeral Artwear. http://www.ulsterpublishing.com/view/full_story/14941692/article--Ephemeral-artwear-Waxed-paper-clothing-by-Kate-Hamilton-now-on-view-at-Water-Street-Market-in-New-Paltz
COSTUME DESIGN
2012 Alte Liebe Neue Music Dir Giancarlo Prossimo, Singer Valerie Arias, Zurich.
2011 Close Choreographer Debra Wanner, Chen Dance Theater and La Mama, NYC.
2010 Sinnlich Verstrickt Collaboration with Valerie Arias (music direction) and Sarah Stead (choreography). Bluebird Productions, Theater Stok, Zurich.
2009 2Parts Whole Choreographer Debra Wanner, West End Theater, NYC.
2009 Vier Frauen: Quilt Bluebird Productions, Theater Stok, Zurich.
2007 Skin Deep Playwright Tina Howe, Director Laura Barnett. Summer Shorts, Theaters 59, Festival of NewAmerican Short Plays.
2002 Dora Dir. Nancy Fales Garrett , La Mama Theater, NYC.
1996-09 Macbeth, Waiting for Godot, True West
Dir. James Glossman, Luna Theater, Montclair, NJ.
1997 Dora Dir. Diane Schenker, American Chamber Opera Company, NYC.
DESIGN
ETAK - Established company and label, NYC. Owner and designer of company that manufactured creative hats and clothes for children. National and international distribution. Produced 20 successful seasons (1983-1997). Editorial coverage in newspapers and magazines including NY Times, NY Magazine, Child, Family Circle and Earnshaws. Partial list of store clients includes Bloomingdales, Harrods, Nordstroms, Fred Segal, Shoofly, Space Kiddets and Dinosaur Hill.
TEACHING
Saint Ann's School Costume Teacher/Designer Brooklyn, NY; 1996-Present
Parsons School of Design Professor of 3D Design in Foundation Division NYC; 2007-2009
West Kortright Centre Costume Teacher/Designer E. Meredith, NY; 1996-2009
