Artist Bio
CAITO (Caito Stewart) was born in 1985 in Ossining, New York. She has shown her work in Tokyo, Japan; St. Louis, MO; Brooklyn, Manhattan, and all over New York state.
In early 2008, she moved to Tokyo, where she spent about ten years working at a language school as a Trainer, developing and facilitating training curriculums and mentoring teachers. She spent the rest of her time painting, studying Japanese, making music, and traveling. On her travels she explored and documented the ruins and ghost towns around rural Japan as inspiration for her art.
She has a BFA in Painting from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and an MFA in Sculpture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She currently lives and works in Long Island, NY.
Artist Statement
I create mixed-media installations and sculptures, using a variety of materials to explore themes of loss, religious trauma, impermanence, and nostalgia. Depending on the project, this can include found materials, ceramic clay, cast resin or plaster, charcoal dust, wood, paper, foam core, epoxy resin clay, and paint. I often use seriality, making multiples of everyday domestic objects from my personal history, to ritualize the act of making. The repetitive labor helps me remember, honor, or preserve what has been changed or lost. I use exaggerated amounts, unexpected pairings of objects, and drastic size increases to convey universal concepts, ideas, and emotions related to my experiences. I strive for a certain level of realism, which contrasts with the alterations I make to create a surreal, uncanny effect that allows me to tackle my emotionally-charged subjects with levity. By mining my own personal experiences in this way, I can process, heal, move forward, and connect with others.
Artist CV
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