Zaptan (Five)
2016
Athena LaTocha
Peekskill, New York
Artworks shown are selected from works submitted by the artist in their grant or residency application. All works are copyright of the artist or artist’s estate.
About Athena LaTocha
Born in Anchorage, Alaska, Athena LaTocha is an artist whose monumental works on paper explore the tenuous relationship between man-made and natural landscapes. Her work has been exhibited across the country at venues including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, CUE Art Foundation, Artists Space, Chelsea Museum of Art, New York State Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, South Dakota Museum of Art, and the International Gallery of Contemporary Art in Anchorage, AK. In 2017, she had a solo exhibition at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe, NM.
LaTocha received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Stony Brook University in New York. LaTocha is a 2016 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Fellowship. She also received the prestigious Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency in 2013. The artist attended the Vermont Studio Center on a full scholarship, and has also been an artist-in-residence at chashama, Brooklyn Army Terminal, New York (2008 to 2015); the Institute of American Indian Art, Santa Fe, NM (2017); and the Wave Hill Winter Workspace Program, Bronx, NY (2018). She currently divides her time between New York City and Peekskill, NY.
Program Participation
Joan Mitchell Center Residency, 2019
Painters & Sculptors Grant, 2016
Website / Social Links
Much of my work is based on direct research conducted through visits to natural areas, national parks and industrial sites. This research, along with material samples, is then brought into the studio. I spread out large rolls of paper on the floor and immerse myself in painting. Surrounded on all sides by the expanse of paper, I move through the work as if traversing the terrain.”
