| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Katie Ohe is a renowned sculptor and educator, best known for her abstract and kinetic sculptures. She was one of the first artists to make abstract sculpture in the province, and has spent over six decades experimenting with ways to rise above familiar heavy and static forms to achieve a sense of weightlessness, dynamism, fluidity, and optical confusion. Her innovative approaches to material, form, and movement have influenced a generation of artists in Canada, and she has singlehandedly made a significant contribution to the development of contemporary art in Alberta.
Ohe is a well respected teacher and mentor in the arts. She has taught sculpture at the Alberta College of Art and Design since 1970, and her students include many successful and high-profile artists with International careers, including Evan Penny, Christian Eckart, Brian Cooley, Alexander Caldwell and Isla Burns.
Ohe studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design, the Montreal School of Art and Design, the Sculpture Centre in New York, and Fonderia Fabris in Verona, Italy. Her work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally, and she has had numerous commissioned works installed throughout Alberta. Her sculptures are in the permanent collections of the Canada Council Art Bank, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Shell Collection, The University of Calgary, and the Glenbow Museum.
In 2001, Ohe was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary in recognition of her influence on art in Alberta. She is an elected member of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and in 2019, Ohe was awarded both the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award and the Alberta Order of Excellence, the highest honour to be bestowed upon a citizen in this province.
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