Catherine Forster

Catherine Forster is an artist, writer, filmmaker, and independent curator based in the Chicago area. She received an M.F.A from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her artwork has been shown at the Notebaert Museum (Chicago), Flint Institute of Art, Carnegie Art Museum, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, South Bend Regional Art Museum, Rockport Art Museum, MA, Indianapolis Art Center, The Rymer Gallery (Nashville), Contemporary Art Centre (Vilnius, Lithuania), Brick City Gallery, Missouri State University, Merwin Gallery Illinois Wesleyan University, Central Michigan University, Nazareth College Art Center Rochester NY, Freewaves (Los Angeles), San Diego Art Institute, Llewellyn Gallery, Alfred State College NY, City of Louisville Colorado Sculpture Garden, Orange County Contemporary Art Center, Exit Art (NY), and the Hyde Park Art Center Chicago, to name a few. Films have been screened at the Sao Paul International Short Film Festival, Krakow International Short Film Festival, Currents Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Magmart Film Festival Casoria International Contemporary Art Museum (Italy), Seattle Film Institute, East LA International Film Festival, the Great Lakes International Film Festival, Experiments in Cinema NM, Chicago REEL Short Film Festival, the Other Venice Film Festival (CA), Echotrope New Media Arts Festival (Omaha), Simultan Media Arts Festival (Romania), Echo Park Film Center (Los Angeles), Directors Lounge (Berlin), and San Diego International Women Film Festival. Her writings have been published by Write City Magazine, and several works have attained finalist status in literary competitions. Forster is also the founder and director of LiveBox, a roving gallery focused on new-media art. Forster’s trajectory as an artist began with careers in microbiology and business, each experience presented a pathway to her current practice. As a microbiologist, her preferred medium was a microscope; today it is a camera and a paintbrush. Forster’s fascination with the world beneath the microscope transformed to the extraordinary arena played out beyond the lens. She is forever fascinated by the capacity of the “third eye” to capture what is missed or denied. Today Forster is most challenged by the relationship between identity and mass media. Her work covers themes of cultural constructs of the feminine, gender non-conformity, and our interactions with nature as a mediated resource.