Dr. samantha
krukowski
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am inspired by materials, places, actions and processes that often go unnoticed because they are impermanent or transitory; because they are abandoned by people or bypassed by cultural designations of importance and value; because they do not fit categories or preconceptions; because they require work, extended attention and active curiosity to be fully understood.
The work in this exhibition was developed using artistic assets from my urban farm - the plants I cultivate and the ground I tend. Eco-printing reveals characteristics and capacities of plants that are not immediately visible – their ability to transmit color under different conditions, their subtle structures and shadow shapes. Engaging the elements and time as collaborators in mark-making is another way to unearth information about how materials are affected by environmental conditions, and what might result from specific juxtapositions (aluminum-dirt-bricks).
ARTIST BIO
Samantha Krukowski is an artist, author and educator. Trained as an architect and art historian, she engages a varied practice that explores the nature of attention, the identity of place, the records of experience, and the consequences of intervention.
After moving to Kansas City in 2020, she established the Little Art Farm, a creative habitat and residential urban farm that nourishes art, nature, animals and community. The Little Art Farm is in part a distinct place on actual ground. It is also a creative laboratory, untethered, that supports explorations into the parallels between art and agricultural practices and the kinds of spaces in which art can be made and experienced.
Krukowski has been involved with higher education for over twenty years and teaches in the Painting Department at the Kansas City Art Institute. She is Vice Chair / Commissioner of the Kansas City Municipal Art Commission. Prior, she taught at the University of Cincinnati (School of Design), Iowa State University (Department of Architecture), and the University of Texas at Austin (Department of Radio-Television-Film). She has taught studios, seminars and lecture courses in architecture, art, design, art and architectural history/theory and has directed three distinct Foundation programs. She taught the first academic studio course ever taught at Burning Man in 2010.
Her first book, Playa Dust: Collected Stories from Burning Man (Black Dog Publishing, 2014) is a compilation of tales about the impermanent city that appears and disappears annually in the Nevada desert. Her second book, T-Squared: Theories and Tactics in Art and Design (Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press, 2022), considers the relationship between creative research and teaching.
Krukowski received a BA in Political Science at Barnard College/Columbia University (1988), MA in Art History at Washington University in St. Louis (1992), MArch at The University of Texas at Austin (1997) and Ph.D in Art History at The University of Texas at Austin (1999). She is an avid horsewoman with a fabulous daughter and admittedly sometimes prefers animals and plants to people.