Kathleen Thum

Statement

My artwork revolves around the subject of fossil fuels. The large-scale cut-paper artworks explore the vastness of the petroleum infrastructure, evoking the physical and emotional experience of the petroleum landscape. The charcoal drawings capture the darkness of coal’s impact on our environment, urging us to confront the environmental cost of our dependence on this carbon emitting resource. My goal is to invite viewers to think more deeply about our connection to fossil fuels, and the ways in which we can use art to inspire change and address the challenges of the current climate crisis.

GlogauAIR Project

My project is to further explore the materiality of coal and oil by using them as art mediums in the work to embed additional context in my drawings and cut-paper artworks. Through research, trial and error, creative problem solving and adapting to the limits and natural tendencies of these medium, I plan to create new artworks that will continue to bring awareness of our disconnection from and dependence on fossil fuels.

CV Summary

Education

• 1998-2000 Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, United States, Master of Fine Arts
• 1989-1992 Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, Bachelor of Fine Arts

Solo Exhibitions

• 2025 The Shapes of Extraction, Greenly Gallery, Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, United States
• 2024 Covering Carbon, Biggin Gallery, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, United States
• 2023 Considering Carbon, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, United States
• 2023 Covering Carbon, UCF Art Gallery, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, United States

Group Exhibitions

• 2025 Earth Fire, Illges Gallery, Columbus State University, Columbus, Georgia, United States
• 2025 Drawing Discourse, 16thAnnual Exhibition of Contemporary Drawing, S. Tucker Cooke Gallery, University of North Carolina, Asheville, United States
• 2024 Matter, Marshall T. Steel Center, Ellis Hall at Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas, United States
• 2024 MARK: Current Approaches to Drawing, Artlink, Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
• 2024 Inside Out, Collection of Ray Griffin and Thom Robinson, Florence County Museum, South Carolina, United States
• 2024 PAPERWORKS, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
• 2023 In the Time of Climate Change, Wailoa Center, University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, Hawaii, United States
• 2023 SCRIBBLES, Carter Burden Gallery, Manhattan, New York, United States
• 2023 Conditional Surroundings, Tipton Gallery, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States
• 2022 Drawn, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
• 2022 The Nature of the Future: Artists Confront the Anthropocene, Leu Art Gallery, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
• 2021 Shifting Sediments, Three-Person Exhibition, Birke Art Gallery, Marshall University, School of Art and Design, Huntington, West Virginia, United States
• 2020 Transforming Politics: Art Made by Women, William King Museum of Art, Abingdon, Virginia, United States
• 2019 Adaptations to Extremes, An Art-Science Collaboration, Courthouse Gallery, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, New York, United States
• 2018 southXeast: Contemporary Southeastern Art, Schmidt Center Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, United States
• 2017 Unnatural History, Spartanburg Art Museum, Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States

Residencies

• 2025 GlogauAIR On-line Residency Program, Berlin, Germany (April-June)
• 2022 Artist Residency, Creative Process Residency, Greywood Arts, Killeagh, Cork, Ireland (June)
• 2018 Artist Residency, Millay Artist Colony, Austerlitz, New York, United States (November)
• 2018 Artist Residency, Hambidge Creative Residency Program, Rabun Gap, Georgia, United States (September)
• 2016 Artist Residency, Jentel Artist Residency, Banner, Wyoming, United States (May – June)

Gallery