Katherine Akey is a San Francisco-based artist whose work explores themes of tenderness, love, and memory. Her practice spans photography, fiber arts, sound, video, and creative writing, with an emphasis on materiality and storytelling. She engages with archives, objects, and personal histories to create multilayered narratives that explore the passage of experience from lived to remembered, memorialized, and forgotten.
For the latest, find her on Instagram — for inquiries of any kind, she’s always excited to receive an email.
Education
International Center of Photography, NYC
2014 – MFA – Advanced Photographic Studies
2011 – BA – Psycholinguistics
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Darkness Shall Cover Me, Birke Art Gallery, Marshall University, Huntington, WV
2021 Darkness Shall Cover Me, Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Fort Worth, TX
2020 Darkness Shall Cover Me, Artspace Gallery, Richmond, VA [cancelled due to COVID-19]
2018 Behind the Silent Hills, Fisher Art Gallery, Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria, VA
2017 The Arctic Smiles Now, Hillyer Art Space, Washington DC
2014 Fata Morgana, thesis exhibition, ICP Bard Studios, NYC, NY
Other Exhibitions
2024 color(less), Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT
2024 Juried Members Show, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
2024 Deep Time, Fringe Arts Bath, Bath, UK
2024 Instructor showcase, Harvey Milk Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2023 The de Young Open, the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
2023 Pyramid Scheme, Bass&Reiner, San Francisco, CA
2023 Rebirth, WAVE Collective, San Francisco, CA
2022 To Feel All Your Warmth, Warbling, London, UK
2022 Group Show, WAVE Collective, San Francisco, CA
2022 Staff and Member Show, Harvey Milk Photo Center, San Francisco, CA
2022 Special Mention, Harmony: A Quest For Mutual Understanding, Urbanautica and the Ragusa Foto Festival
2022 The Sculpture Shoppe, Cornell University Department of Classics, Ithaca, NY
2022 Uninhabited Film Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
2022 Future Nostalgia FM, part of the Futurology Kiosks from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany
2021 Artist Flatfiles, Aerogramme Center for Arts and Culture
2021 Folklore and Traditions, Loosenart at Millepiani, Rome, IT
2021 Reel Art, Cultural Center of Cape Cod, South Yarmouth, MA
2021 Every Woman Biennial, London, UK
2020 Love Came Here and Never Left, A Gallery From Home, solo feature
2020 Vanishing, THIS_____, online
2019 Forgotten, Southeast Center for Photography, Greenville, SC
2019 Transformer Silent Auction, on behalf of Transformer Gallery, Washington D.C.
2018 Art of Armistice, Target Gallery at the Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA
2017 TheLibrary at Tête, Tête, Berlin, Germany
2017 Ink It, Blackrock Center for the Arts, Germantown, MD
2016 Photoville, Brooklyn, NY
2016 The Future Perfect, International Center of Photography, NYC, NY
2016 Gen-Y 3.0, VisArts, Rockville, MD
2015 We Got Divorced!, Pop-up exhibition in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
2015 Light Sensitive, Art Intersection, Phoenix, AZ
2014 We Got Married!, group exhibition, Pop-up exhibition in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
2014 Found in Translation, International Center of Photography, NYC, NY
2013 MFA National Competition, First Street Gallery, NYC, NY
2013 Seven Seas Gallery, Nantucket, MA
2013 (The Show is On) The Other Foot, ICP-Bard Studios, NYC, NY
2013 Slidefest, International Center of Photography, NYC, NY
2013 24th Annual Photo Show, State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, NY
2012 In Tension, ICP-Bard Studios, NYC, NY
2011 Nantucket Arts Festival, Nantucket, MA
Residencies, Fellowships, and Memberships
2021 Bonfire WALK & TALK residency, artist in residence
2020-Present The Explorers Club Member
2020-2021 Artist in Residence, Artist Residency in Motherhood
2020 Correspondent with Call Centre, Allenheads Contemporary Arts
2017 Fellow with The Living Legacy of World War One at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
2015 Artist in Residence, Arctic Circle Residency in Svalbard, Norway
2014 – 2019 The Explorers Club Student Member
2012 – 2014 International Center of Photography Director’s Fellowship
Publications
2021 Finding is Losing Something Else (ginkgo and other dreams), self published
2021 Thoughts on Climbing Roses, self published
2021 Mothers’ Hands, self published
2021 Oldest Tree On The Farm, self published
2021 NOKIA: a digital archaeological examination of teenage love, Quarantine Public Library
2019 Eau(x), Polysème Magazine
2018 Hidden Faces of WW1: Maxillofacial Portraits Preserved on Circulating Now from the National Library of Medicine
2017 Dogfork 1, self published
2016 i think of thee as i gaze at the sea, Flamingo Publications
2016 Cartes de Visite, self published booklet
2014 Vivian Maier: A Photographer Found, Research Intern for Marvin Heiferman
2014 Fata Morgana, self published thesis book
2014 Figures, self published book
2014 Ship, self published in collaboration with Emilie Lundstrøm
2013 Canopache, self-published
2013 Edits Self, International Center of Photography
Speaking Experience
2020 Instructor, Beyond the Studio, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC
2019 Panel Member, CultureBlast July: International Arts and Artists, Hillyer Art Space, Washington DC
2018 Featured Lecturer, Fellow with The Living Legacy of World War One at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, NYC NY
2018 Panel Member, Artist as Time Traveler: Reflecting on Time and History to Expand our Understanding of Contemporary Culture, Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington DC
2018 Guest Lecturer, History of Photography, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, Washington DC
2017 Artist Talk, Hillyer Art Space, Washington DC
2017 Keynote Speaker, Career Day at St. Catherine’s School, Richmond VA
Teaching Positions
2022-present Instructor at Harvey Milk Photo Center
Courses taught include Cyanotype, Mordançage, Lumens and Luminograms
2021-present Instructor at Penumbra Foundation
Courses taught include Light/Writing and Little Sips of Selfhood: Professional Practices for Parent Artists
2021-2023 Mentor at Image Threads Collective
2020-2021 Adjunct Faculty and 2018-2020 Visiting Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Advisor, Corcoran School of the Arts at GWU
Courses taught include Appropriation and the Archival Impulse; Pre-Digital Alternative Processes; Foundations: Time and Light; Color Photography; War Art: Photography Seminar; Post-Photography: Photography Seminar
2016-2020 Photography Department Chair, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop
Courses taught include Introductory Darkroom, Darkroom Photography II, Cyanotype, Photography/Printmaking/Bookmaking. Learn more about the photo department at CHAW here.
Artwork in Permanent Collections
NOKIA: a digital archaeological examination of teenage love, as part of Quarantine Public Library in the Zine Web Archive at The Library of Congress
Mothers’ Hands, The Oldest Tree on the Farm, Antigua, Finding is Losing Something Else (Ginkgo and Other Dreams), and Thoughts on Climbing Roses in the Library at the International Center of Photography
this is the closest i’ll come to touching you the way i want in Det Poetiske Fonotek, Copenhagen Denmark
i think of thee when i gaze at the sea, and Canopache in the Library at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC USA
i think of thee when i gaze at the sea in TheLibrary, Berlin Germany
Jury Experience
2017-2020 Juror for Capitol Hill Arts Workshop Photography Residency program
2019 Portfolio review for VCU BFA in Photography and Film class of 2019
2018 National Portfolio Day at Corcoran School of Arts at GWU
2017 Juror for Juried Exhibition at Leica DC gallery