October 17, 2002 – January 8, 2003
Kati Casida: FLUX
Gallery 555
555 City Center (at 12th & Clay), Oakland, CA
Lobby. Hours 7am - 6pm.
located in downtown Oakland
Open and free to the public. BART, AC Transit and Wheelchair accessible.

Presented by the Oakland Museum of California Professional Services division

Pin Curl , 1994, aluminum & steel, 5'h x 12'L x 6'w

Kati Casida was born in Viroqua, Wisconsin, a small farming community. Of Norwegian descent, she received an AAUW (American Association of University Women) scholarship to study art in Norway and later was a visiting artist at Ekely, the estate of Edvard Munch in Oslo. Her work has been exhibited locally and internationally and is represented in many public and private collections.

Casida works with many different mediums, from handmade paper to metal to neon. She includes among her artistic influences landscape, music and nomadic life. Her involvement in Greek and Cypriot dance circles as well as her Norwegian-American background and studies of Nordic cultures also are reflected in her graceful forms.

Casida’s sinuous sculptures imply motion, a continuous passage through space. “Thrust, undulation, rhythm, upside, around” are all words the artist uses to describe her work and the creative process. She begins by folding torn up pieces of paper or thin strips of metal into small models to explore on an intimate scale how form relates to space. Expanding and retracting, these pilot sculptures stand on their own; not only as studies, but also as distinct artistic expressions of the artist’s lyrical vision that informs the larger works.

The upsized proportions of her large-scale sculpture enable Casida to fully resolve any structural complexities and arrive at a purity of form. The rhythmic shapes examine the subtle relationships between inside and outside, space and no space, volume and void. With each vantage point, a new perspective on the interplay between positive and negative space is offered, further revealing the poetic resonance of every bend and curve.

She possesses a lyrical vision that resonates with each bend and curve.