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 Westchester, NY.
Artist Statement
I’m interested in how the impermanence of everything makes life utterly devastating, but also beautiful, interesting, and worthwhile. I have long been fascinated with nature, trees, ruins, and personal mementos, because of their ability to store memories and embody emotions.
I make oil paintings and hand-painted ceramic sculptures that depict abandoned domestic places and objects that loosely symbolize my own life experiences with change, loss, and grief. These neglected man-made items are usually weathered, decaying, and being overtaken by nature. We try and fail to control nature, yet can’t live without it.
My studio practice starts with gathering imagery: exploring nature or abandoned spaces, photographing them, and reading a lot. It also involves a lot of reflecting, writing, and sketching to identify meaningful symbolic connections that can be translated into visual motifs. I draw inspiration not only from my childhood memories growing up in the 1980s and 90s, but also tv, films, and books portraying post-apocalyptic futures, the ruins imagery of 18th century artists like Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Memento Mori and Dutch Vanitas still life painting, as well as more contemporary landscape painting, urbex photography, and mixed media sculptors who use everyday objects in symbolic or nostalgic ways to evoke emotion.
In creating these scenes of decay and abandonment, I reflect on my own longing for the people, homes, and selves I have lost. I acknowledge that change and loss lead to grief and suffering, but they also wake us up from complacency and help us savor the now and remember what we once took for granted.
Artist CV
Caito Stewart
Education
2020 MFA Fine Art/Sculpture, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2007 BFA Fine Art/Painting, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2018 I Come From the Water, Ossining Public Library, Ossining, NY
2018 Controlled Chaos, Peekskill Coffee House, Peekskill, NY
2013 Caitlin Stewart and Renee Riddle, Les Rendez-vous de Tokyo, Japan
Group Exhibitions and Events
2026 Space and Time, Clay Art Center, Portchester, NY
2026 Veins in Between, A Space Gallery Brooklyn, NY
2025 Arte Natura, Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY
2025 Call Leagues, Atelier Modern, Larchmont, NY
2025 Come Together, Clay Art Center, Portchester, NY
2025 Rewriting Her Story, a virtual exhibition at Hera Gallery
2025 Echo Locator, Field Projects Gallery, New York, NY
2024 Kinosaito Annual 2024 Show, Kinosaito, Verplanck, NY
2024 Lighting the Way, Clay Art Center, Portchester, NY
2022 Chromotherapy in an Age of Doubt, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Manhattan, NY
2021 Home Room: Live and In Person (curated by ANTE), ChaShaMa, Manhattan, NY
2021 Unprecedented: Art Responds to 2020, View Arts Center, Old Forge, NY
2021 Art in Odd Places, AiOP Performance Art Festival, Manhattan, NY
2021 Emergent Poise, Pratt MFA 2020 Artist Collective, OnCanal, Manhattan, NY
2020-2021 Vanishing (Virtual Exhibition), This Gallery, Vancouver, CANADA
2020 Artwork published in The Artists’ Grief Deck, Artists’ Literacies Institute
2020 Home Room (Online Performance), Radiator Gallery and ANTE Mag,
Long Island City, NY
2020 Us: What divides us and what unites us? (Virtual Exhibition), Touchstone Gallery,
Washington, D.C.
2020 The Feminine Agenda, Womenswork.Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY
2020 LOSS (Virtual exhibition), Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
2020 JUSTICE (Virtual exhibition), The Art Guild, Manhasset, NY
2020 Inheritance, Super Dutchess Gallery, Manhattan, NY
2020 Realism: Encountering the Real, Site:Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
2020 Artists in the Time of Coronavirus (Virtual exhibition), Artblog, Philadelphia, PA
2020 Assemblage (Virtual exhibition), The Olympia Project, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Pratt MFA Candidates Show, Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Welcome, Steuben Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Pratt MFA Candidates Show, Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Breaking Down Primaries, Steuben Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2007 BFA Thesis Show, Walker Hall, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
2007 Senior Painting Show, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Related Work Experience
Jan. 2024 – Present – Director, One River School of Art + Design, Larchmont, NY
Aug. 2022 – Dec. 2023 Director of Education, One River School of Art + Design, Larchmont, NY
Nov. 2021 – Aug. 2022 Asst. Director of Education, One River School of Art + Design, Larchmont, NY
June 2021 – Nov. 2021 Art Instructor, One River School of Art + Design, Woodbury, NY
2021 Curator, “Emergent Poise IV: Assertion of Life,” an exhibition by the Pratt MFA
2020 Artist Collective, WallPlay, Soho, NY
2021 Artist Speaker and Facilitator, Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY
2020-2022 Peer Support Group Host/Facilitator for The Dinner Party
2020-Present Support Group Facilitator/moderator for NYC Motherless Daughters
2020-2021 Virtual Workshop Facilitator for Ghost Tike Workshops with Reimagine
2020-2021 Programming Committee Member and Facilitator at COPE Foundation
2020 Graduate Assistant Award (Teaching Assistant), Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY
2019 Founder of MFA Student Support Group, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Graduate Assistant Award (Sculpture Shop Monitor) Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY
2019 Intern, Immaculate Conception, Inc. (Studio of Janine Antoni), Brooklyn, NY
2018 Facilitator, Art Healing Grief Workshop, St. Augustine Parish Hall, Ossining, NY
2013-2017 Teacher Trainer at ECC Language Institute, Tokyo Japan
2008-2013 English Instructor at ECC Language Institute, Tokyo, Japan
2006 Installation Assistant to Matthew Ritchie, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
2006 Installation Assistant to Tara Donovan, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
2006 Intern, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2005 Intern in Collections Management, Rubin Museum of Art, Chelsea, NY
Collections
Artwork belongs to private collections in Tokyo, Japan; Toronto, Canada; London, United Kingdom; San Jose, CA; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Brooklyn, NY; Westchester, NY; Long Island, NY; Glastonbury, CT; and New Jersey.
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