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Kate Gridley

Kate Gridley

Visual Arts
Spring 2026
Visual Artist — United States — Olivetta Fellow
This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.
Known for her insights into human character, the quality of light in her work, and her painting technique, Kate Gridley maintains a studio in Middlebury, Vermont, where she has lived and painted full time since 1991. A life-long painter —nominally a realist— Kate examines the interface between art and science, the science of art, the art of science, as she witnesses her world. Kate is a keen and curious observer of the natural and human-made worlds and their unexpected intersections.
Gridley is currently at work on two major projects.  “Witness Marks: Anatomy of a Memory,” is a multimedia installation in which she explores how we make memories, how we store them, how we retrieve them, and how we bend them. “The Shoulders on Which We Stand: A Portrait of Francois Clemmons,” is Gridley's multimedia over-life-size standing portrait of famed children’s television character Officer Clemmons, of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Gridley’s goal for her residency at Bogliasco is to draw, to witness and to react.