Katherine Fraser (b. Annapolis, Maryland) grew up on the coast of Maine as an only child, and finds that experience often reflected in her work; the interior world, and the image of the single figure have always been central to her art-making. In 2002 she received a certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and graduated with a BFA magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. She continues to live and work in Philadelphia. The artist has been showing with Paradigm Gallery since 2014, with a total of six solo exhibitions in the ensuing years, and her seventh scheduled for this upcoming fall. She has exhibited widely throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, with shows as far west as the Willard Arts Center in Idaho Falls. 

Her oil paintings on canvas, usually large, have evolved from highly realistic narrative portraiture, to more abstracted, and open-form figuration. Known for her emotionally engaging faces, the paintings without portraiture also maintain a high level of emotional engagement. The texture, color, movement, and omission of certain details all lend an evocative air. 

My paintings depict moments of quiet reflection and insight, of wonder, vulnerability, yearning, determination, humility, strength, and growth. I see a duality in every moment, and beauty in the tension of opposing emotions existing in a single facial expression. As every person, and every experience is multifaceted, every painting is meant to express a dimensional idea. My goal is not just to make aesthetically beautiful paintings, but to create works that touch and resonate with the complexity of real world experience.

I focus on the single figure, the self-created identity. By portraying singular figures in sparse settings, I explore the idea that being alone makes us feel alive and connected to our true nature. I like a melancholic aura, and embrace a little edge of uncertainty. In recent years this interest has evolved toward a deepening exploration in abstraction and elimination in the image-making. Faces are lost, parts of the body disappear into textural expanse. Hands and gesture might be all that remains. Yet the emotional resonance persists in the pose as it exists alongside the color, texture, and mood.