A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
Kat Bawden, an adult person with a fair skin tone and wavy brown hair, sits on a couch indoors.

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Kat Bawden

Lecturer

Contact

Bio

Kat Bawden (she/they) is an artist, educator, and curator in Chicago. She works across photography, video, performance, and light-based installations to explore the relationship between the body, traumatic memory, and perception. Attuned to the physiological and emotional effects of light, Kat constructs immersive visual environments that echo between presence and memory, inviting viewers into charged spaces of intimacy, disorientation, and reflection. Kat holds an MFA in Photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a B.A. in political philosophy and environmental science from University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. She runs Murmuration, an exhibition space and artist residency.

Awards

2024 Individual Artists Grant, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events; 2024 Artists to Watch, Comfort Station; 2023 Merit Scholarship, Ox-Bow School of Art & Artist Residency; 2022 James Weinstein Memorial Fellowship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; 2021 Gifted Book Award, Photolucida; 2021 Emerging Artist Scholarship Shortlist, Lucie Foundation.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions & Performances: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the International Center of Photography, EXPO Chicago, the International Museum of Surgical Science, the Design Museum of Chicago, Roots & Culture, Iceberg Projects, Filter Photo, Elastic Arts, Co-Prosperity, Comfort Station, and others.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This course explores performance practices for the camera, including video, photo-based performance, new media, and expanded cinema. We¿ll examine how performing for a camera differs from live performance and how presenting this imagery can become a performative act. Students will develop technical skills and conceptual frameworks through readings, assignments, and three main projects. Topics include visual haptics, virtuality, and the philosophy of self, with artists like Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum, and Ana Mendieta. Classes feature lectures, discussions, creative exercises, and field trips. A laptop with Adobe Creative Cloud is required.

Class Number

2168

Credits

3