Kristina Paabus ”Meanwhile”

As a first-generation Estonian-American, Paabus has been influenced by growing up in between these two cultures, histories, and locations. Her artwork examines the systems that we use to control our surroundings – or in turn the strategies and structures that try to control us. She observes, interprets, and responds to experiences of attempted containment such as architecture, religion, language, and government. Meanwhile translates visual remnants that describe the lasting impact of occupation on both tangible and invisible spaces. Through abstraction and metaphor, Paabus investigates the operations, failures, fractures, superstitions, and perceptions of these systems to uncover underlying common codes within our shared experiences.

Kristina Paabus earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Paabus has exhibited her work throughout the US, Europe, and China, with recent exhibitions including NEO Geo at the Akron Art Museum (OH), Belt and Road at The National Gallery (Bulgaria), and the Novosibirsk Graphics Triennial (Russia). She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship for Installation Art in Estonia, the Grant Wood Fellowship in Printmaking at The University of Iowa, an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and the SGCI Guanlan Residency Award. Kristina has attended numerous artist residences such as ACRE (WI), Ox-Bow (MI), Women’s Studio Workshop (NY), Emmanuel College (MA), SÍM (Iceland), MUHU A.I. (Estonia), Guanlan Original Printmaking Base (China), NCCA Kronstadt (Russia), and Anderson Ranch Art Center (CO). Paabus lives and works in Ohio where she is Associate Professor of Studio Art in Reproducible Media at Oberlin College. 

Artist’s website: http://kristinapaabus.com/