Catherine Howe creates densely layered, lush, and gestural paintings with effervescent materials that have a vibrant energy and sensuous sensibility. The paintings are process-based while retaining an affinity with observed subject matter. Howe often references Dutch flower painting, botanical illustrations, and American post-war abstraction, using these as representational starting points to balance with her own hand and gesture.
Howe received an MFA from SUNY Buffalo in 1983. Her work has been discussed in numerous publications including The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, Flash Art, Il Giornale dell’Arte, Whitewall Magazine, il Giornale dell’Arte, the New Art Examiner, and The Los Angeles Times. Her paintings have been exhibited extensively in New York, and the United States, including solo exhibitions at VonLintel Gallery, New York/LA, Lesley Heller Workspace, Casey Kaplan, Liz Koury, Littlejohn Contemporary, Bill Maynes Gallery, Slein/ Schmidt, St Louis, Kim Light, Los Angeles. Exhibitions abroad include Yukiko Kawase, Paris, Salama Caro Gallery, London, Johan Jonker, Amsterdam, and Thomas von Lintel. She is currently a Professor on the Graduate Painting Faculty at the New York Academy of Art, where she leads a seminar on contemporary art. She lives and works in Manhattan and a farmhouse in The Hudson Valley.