During my years at Bennington College, Clement Greenberg maintained a stronghold on most of its Art faculty. I was attracted to their intellectual dogma. Already sequestered safely inside my head, it was a good fit.
After college, as life became mine to own, such a rigidly formal approach to art making began to feel arbitrary and also limiting: I wanted to invent with a subject matter, to build out into physical space and to pierce that flat picture plane. Following my own persuasions, mixing the vocabularies of painting and sculpture, representation with abstraction, fine art with craft, I have been working 3-dimensionally, inventing on some periphery of my own making, ever since.
Five years ago I was wall mounting my sculptural work. The wall was an active element in this work. Once I started isolating and increasing the scale of floral elements from that sculpture, new works developed resembling flora from another world. The floor called to me. I built tables and seated each construction on a pedestal table made “custom” for it, enabling a conversation between these juxtaposed elements. A recent addition to this series, “Dead Bird Morphing,” changes the subject. Perhaps I will address life’s underside as I move this series forward.
I am also working on some small relief carvings, taking an unscripted approach to building composition. Each work is a stand alone statement, win or lose. Here I can enjoy the intimacy of working small and the quietness that comes with using simple hand tools.
Born and raised in New York City, Kathran Siegel attended Bennington College, where she majored in Painting. She worked towards an M.F.A. at the University of New Mexico, but at the invitation of Newton Harrison and Paul Brach, (with powerful wives: Helen Harrison and Miriam Shapiro) stopped her studies to help develop the program for a new art department at the University of California at San Diego.
Following these experiences, Siegel moved to a loft in N.Y.C. where she continued to paint. After a few years, she moved to Gainesville, Florida, where she taught at the University of Florida. Also in Florida, she developed a Sculpture/Woodworking program for Santa Fe Community College, in Gainesville, FL and built a comprehensive art program for Bartram School, in Jacksonville, FL which department she headed for the next 8 years.
While working on an MEd., Siegel took a woodworking class, which led her into 25 years of art furniture making. Amused by the ways in which she saw her furniture incorporated into vignettes created by designers and put on display at the large ACC Craft Fairs, Siegel began a series of her own “vignettes,” carving accessories and placing them on and alongside her furniture, to suggest a human presence just passed or about to happen. This body of work led to a solo exhibition at the Jacksonville (FL) Museum of Contemporary Art, titled STILL LIFE/REAL LIFE, and also at Duncan Gallery, Stetson University in Deland, FL. In 2005 an updated version of this solo exhibition was shown at the Pfundt Gallery of the Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA. In the years that followed, Siegel’s work moved from the floor to the wall, where it became more about the carving, the shapes and painted areas of color. She referred to these works as “Carved Paintings.” Eventually reintegrating furniture into new free standing works around the 2010’s, Siegel has since been working both ways.
Until her retirement from teaching in 2011, Siegel combined her studio practice with teaching art in and around Philadelphia, where she currently lives. Her work is in several regional museum and public art collections. She was an exhibiting member of Muse Gallery in Philadelphia from 2021-2024. Siegel was awarded an NEA Ventures Grant and later an Andy Warhol Foundation Grant. She has published a monograph on the artist, Mildred Thompson, as well as articles on the arts and art education.
1962 - 1966
Bennington College and University of New Mexico, Bennington, VT and Albuquerque, NM
BFA
1966 - 1967
University of New Mexico, Alburquerque, NM
MFA program
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
1972 - 1973 M.Ed
1977 - 1978 Post Graduate studies
2025
Robin Larsen Award, New Hope Arts Inc. New Hope, PA
For Innovative and Boundary-Pushing Work in Wood
2015 - 2016
Artist Residency, Mt. Airy Custom Furniture, Inc. Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, PA
Granted a studio space and use of a machine woodshop
2004 - 2005
Philadelphia Art and Education Partnership, Philadelphia, PA
School year Teaching Grant
1998
Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, New York, NY
Covering a 3 week residency January-February with Carter Radcliff at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL
1993 - 1994
Artist-In-Residence, Funded through the Arts Assembly of Jacksonville, FL
Residency based in the Duval County Public Schools
1990
Art Ventures Grant
Co-sponsored by N.E.A. and Jacksonville Community Foundation
2003 - 2004
Adjunct Faculty Department of Art Education, Supervisor, Practicum Experience, Moore College Of Art And Design, Philadelphia, PA
2000 - 2002, 2003
Adjunct Art Faculty, Montgomery County Community College, Blue Bell, PA
2001 - 2011
Art Teacher, Philadelphia District Public Schools, Philadelphia, PA
2000
Instructor, Design II for Wood, Bucks County Community College Newtown, PA
2000 - 2001
Adjunct Faculty, Survey of Media and Design, Art Institute of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
1989
Adjunct Faculty, Art History, Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FL
1982 - 1988
Visual Arts Head, Bartram School, Jacksonville, FL
1973 - 1978
Adjunct Faculty, College of Education, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
1969
Adjunct Faculty, Fine Art Department, University of CA at La Jolla, San Diego, CA
1968 - 1969
Fine Arts Faculty appointment, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
"Curated Section by Guest Curator, Bridgette Mayer," Create Magazine, Issue 3, 2017, pages 148-149
“Kathran Siegel, Carving A Life." Persimmon Tree, Summer Issue 2016
Annual 73rd Juried Exhibition, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA, 2014, pages 19-21
(catalogue)
Moser, Grant “Wood you like to learn woodcarving at Woodmere.” Chestnut Hill Local, July 5, 2012
2023
Review pgs 8-9, “Armor Gallery Book Louise Freshman Brown,” Nathan H. Wilson Center for the Arts, Florida State College at Jacksonville, FL
2010
“How the Arts Lay a Foundation for Learning,” EDUCATION WEEK, Nov 3,2010 article in print and web editions
2001
Furniture Studio Two, “Art Furniture,” examining the compromised union of two traditions, Winter Ed. Cambium Press, Bethel, CT
1999
Furniture Studio Two, Fall edition, “A Bridge Between Art and Life,” Cambium Press, Bethel, CT
1997
“Mildred Thompson: Deep Space,” A Monograph,The Jacksonville MOCA, Jacksonville, FL
Siegel, Kathran, “How The Arts Lay a Foundation For Learning.” Education Week, November 3, 2010
Aimone, Steven, Design!: A Lively Guide to Design Basics for Artists & Craftspeople, Lark Books, A Division of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. NY, 2004
Siegel, Kathran, “Art Furniture,” Furniture Studio Two, Winter, 2001
Siegel, Kathran, "A Bridge Between Art and Life." Furniture Studio, Cambium Press, Bethel, CT, 1999
2002
Installation of Commissioned Gallery Bench, James A. Michener Museum Of Art, Doylestown, PA
Bruce Katsiff, Museum Director
2023
Solo Series: Kathran Siegel, Abington Art Center, Abington, PA
2022
Thinking With My Hands, Muse Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2016
Nature Walks (feature exhibition), a series of relief sculptures, Persimmon Tree, on-line arts magazine, Summer Issue, 2016
2005
Still Life/Real Life/(A Second Look), Pfundt Gallery, James A. Michener Museum of Art, Doylestown, PA
1996
Still Life/Real Life, Duncan Gallery, Stetson University, Deland, FL
1993
Authenticity: Truth Or Fiction?, Duncan Gallery, Stetson University, Deland, FL
Authenticity: Truth Or Fiction?, Amerika Haus, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Installation of sculpture with text
Galerie Art Form, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Still Life/Real Life, Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL
Installation of sclpture with text
1989
Kathran Siegel, Art & Architectural Design, Baltimore, MD
2024
Improvisations, Kathran Siegel and guest artist Cassandra Petruchyk, Muse Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2025
Works in Wood, New Hope Arts Center, New Hope, PA
The Female Gaze, DaVinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
The Anxious or Serene Image, Ceres Gallery, Chelsea, NY
By Invitation to exhibit with Zeuxis, an association of Still-Life painters
2024
The Naked Show, InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition, featuring works by 15 InLiquid Artist Members
2023
Crafting Nature, InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition featuring works by 11 InLiquid Artist Members
Inspired By Nature, Shen Gallery, Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Invitational Exhibition
2022-2023
Works In Wood, New Hope Arts Center, New Hope, PA
Juror’s Award
2020-2021
RIVERFRONT 20/20, as part of Abstraction, The Delaware Contemporary Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Fall/Winter 2020 museum-wide themed exhibitions
2020
Subversion, DaVinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
2018
Texas National, SFA Art Galleries, Nacodoches, TX
Juror, Jed Pearl
2014
Woodmere Museum Annual 73rd Juried Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA
Juror, Sarah McEneaney
1997
The Chair Show II, Southern Highland Craft Guild, Folk Art Center, Asheville, NC
1995
Southeastern Fine Crafts Biennial Invitational Invitational Exhibition, Gulf Coast Art Center, Belleair, FL
Exhibition also traveled to DeLand Museum of Art, DeLand, FL
1986
Murray State University, Clara M. Eagle Gallery, Murray, KY
Plus one year traveling
1986
ART + ARCHITECTURE, The Public Art Trust, Washington, DC
Director, Elena Kanavier
1985
ANIMALS, The Public Art Trust, Washington, DC
Director, Elena Kanavier
1983
DESIGN U.S.A., Kjarvalsstadir Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland
2008
Made in Italy: Il Chiostro, Broome Street Gallery, New York, NY
2007
Made in Italy: Il Chiostro, Broome Street Gallery, New York, NY
Solo Exhibition of Mildred Thompson, Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL
(catalogue)
2024
Florida CraftArt, St. Petersburg, FL
Bequest for the permanent collection Black and White, 1990, Utopian Style Side Chair, Maple with Acrylic Paint
MOCA Jacksonville, Univ. of N. FL, Jacksonville, FL,
Donated from the collection of the late Mary Ann Bryan of Jacksonville Beach FL by her family, Stationary Screen, wood panels with applied painted sculptural forms, 78” at highest. Each Panel 41” x 24” x 38”
2002
James A Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA, 2002
Purchase/Commission, Gallery Bench for permanent collection and to be utilized in a museum gallery
2001
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Vanitas, carved and painted wood, 74 x 40 x 40 inches for Permanent Collection
1996
City Hall, Orlando FL
Public Art collection, maquette for Studio Break, 1993, to augment an earlier purchase
1995
Florida Gulf Coast Art Museum, Belleair, FL
Afternoon Table, for Permanent Collection, the museum closed and its collection was moved to a different art venue in Florida
1994
Installation of Sculpture Commissioned for the lobby of the Jewish Community Alliance, Jacksonville, FL
1993
City Hall, Orlando, FL
Studio Break, Art In Public Places, Frank Holt, Director
