Katie Mongoven/秋莲 (b. 1995) is a Chinese American fiber artist from Washington, DC, based in Detroit, MI. Her work investigates and fortifies the space between cultural dichotomies through multiple fiber processes. She received her BFA from the University of Michigan and MFA in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art with the Surface Design Association’s Outstanding Student Award. She was a Roman J. Witt Visiting Artist at the University of Michigan, a Windgate University Fellow at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts (TN), and the Barstow Artist-in-Residence at Central Michigan University. Other residencies attended include the California Institute of the Arts, the University of Michigan, and Vermont Studio Center, with a forthcoming residency at Stove Works (TN) in 2025. Solo and group exhibitions include the University of Michigan, Playground Detroit, Riffe Gallery (OH), and ROY G BIV Gallery (OH). She has public and corporate commissions at the Cranbrook Art Museum, PayTile, and Cross River Bank. Her work is held in public collections at Central Michigan University, Summa Health, and MetroHealth and in numerous private collections throughout the United States.
How does religion steady life’s unpredictability? What do we gain, but also equally importantly, lose with new knowledge? How can we redefine ornamentalism as a symbol of Asiatic female autonomy and resist objectification and commodification? My practice explores the space between fate and free will, past and present, and here and there. Like all in-between, third spaces, these spaces are not fixed binaries, but evolving swirls of interaction and negotiation. I use cotton, silk, bamboo, hair, beads, and blue and white ceramics in process-based, fiber work to examine the cultural and social intersections that exist within the Asian American diaspora.
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