Artist Research Project

Kimberly Chapman grew up in Ohio and before enrolling in the Cleveland Institute of Art she had undergraduate and graduate degrees in marketing, working to promote colleges and corporations for three decades. At the Cleveland Institute of Art, she was awarded multiple merit scholarships for her non-functional narrative sculptures. Kimberly graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art and won the school’s The Agnus Gund Traveling Award. As a child, Kimberly was curious and made many different and abstract pieces. Today, she focuses on creating narrative pieces that convey injustice and cruelty in our history and to “shed light on dark topics”. She is focused on creating her sculptures to “tell(s) cruel tales about the historical mistreatment of humanity and what’s left behind after terrible things happen.”

Kimberly uses the Cream White Porcelain to create her sculptures. Her sculptures, especially some of her bigger ones appear to use the pinch technique. The glazing she uses on her sculptures is limited, but she uses a transparent, or clear, glaze as well as a gold type of luster.

Kimberly’s art stood out to me because her Asylum Series, the pieces that drew me into her work, reminded me of the Greek Mythology style and the medium that she used (white porcelain) reminded me of the sculptures of the Greek Gods. As I looked deeper into her different pieces they stood out to me because they were very different by clearly conveyed a story. One thing I really enjoy about Kimberly’s artwork is the simplicity in the decoration process, such as using the transparent/clear glaze and sometimes the gold luster, because it shows the amount of detail put in on the sculpture. I also enjoy her simplicity in decoration because it does not distract from the narrative of her piece that she conveys to her viewers. Kimberly’s focus on her sculptures is to create horrible, forgotten moments in history and spotlight them. I believe that her decoration and choices of limited distractions from the sculpture itself are intentional and very effective.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/179xHoL-xvcJshHo2ALYIL3AXdw9AUpd8evl_olL1L3U/edit#slide=id.p