June 13 — August 1, 2026
LIFE-SIZE
Catherine Howe
Conduit Gallery is pleased to present LIFE-SIZE, a new body of paintings by New York-based artist Catherine Howe.
Working in acrylic, iridescent mineral pigments, and metal leaf on canvas, Howe takes a personal language of botanical painting to the edges of pure abstraction, creating a lyrical world where minuscule flowers speak to universal notions. The paintings are flower portraits born of nature's capacity to reflect our human qualities, connecting to a long thread of animism. They exist as a bridge between the world within and the world without, animating earthly materials into being, an imprint of action and agency.
The flora have been uprooted and freed from their earthly constraints. Gravity itself has been left behind as they move toward a new incarnation or dimension. Winding stems tremble and blossoms wave and beckon. Plant forms are embodied in painted relief, rendered in iridescent mineral pigments and metal leaf that project the solid, objective world of nature into the ineffable, ethereal realm of the spirit, surfaces shifting in hue as the light changes and the viewer moves in relation to the painting. It is now a world where nothing is alive without peril. But it is still a paradise, where each day may see nature rising again to flourish. These blooms possess a self-confidence and spirit that transcends earthbound woes.
Catherine Howe was born in upstate New York and received an MFA from SUNY Buffalo. She has exhibited throughout the United States and internationally for over thirty years. The many publications that have reviewed her work include The New York Times, Art in America, Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, The New Yorker, and the Los Angeles Times. She was a Professor on the Graduate Painting Faculty at the New York Academy of Art and Chair of the Department of Critical Studies from 2000 until 2021.
Her paintings have been exhibited extensively across the United States and abroad.
Catherine Howe lives and works in NYC and the Hudson Valley.