Catherine Elizabeth Richards is an architect and visual artist. Her work expands the understanding of architecture at different scales; from discrete objects, sculpture and installations to city-wide interventions. Richards works between mediums, exploring architecture and perception with materials, experimental photography and video.

Her installation for Carl Solway Gallery, Capricious Alignment, features immersive textile prints and polychrome aluminum sculptures. In her words, ”Order, decoration, and color create a dynamic psychology of space. The viewer’s perceptual experience is heightened by the sequential nature of both the tapestries and open grid structures. The juxtaposition of repeating floral environments alongside minimalist sculpture opens a dialogue between notions of order and chaos. Boundaries between exterior and interior are rendered fluid and playful.”  

The sculpture Valance, on view in the gallery’s lobby, draws upon the history of glass architecture.  This lighted glass sculpture incorporates plant patterns etched directly into the surface.  The viewer’s reflection merges with the transparent structure, itself a meditation on inside and outside.  Her family’s farm in Michigan, a historic site where botanists developed hybrid species of apples and cherries, is largely responsible for her plant-based references. Valance was first shown in 2014 at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Richards’s solo exhibition, Coral City, was on view in the UnMuseum at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati from 2015 to 2017.  Her “place making” initiatives in Cincinnati include Future Blooms and Modern Makers. In the past Richards worked in exhibition design and architecture in London and New York, at OMA, RE X architects and Metaphor Unlimited. She participated in teams designing the Wyley Theatre in Dallas and Museum Plaza Skyscraper in Louisville, and museum exhibitions for the Victoria and Albert Museum London, and the Guggenheim Bilbao. Richards holds Master of Architecture and Bachelor of Science degrees in Architecture from the University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning where she now teaches. She is a co-founder of the art collective Hark + Hark, with Anh Tran. Hark + Hark created an installation for Marchon Eyewear in New York City, that traveled to Paris, London, Berlin and Tokyo in 2016 and is now in the company’s permanent collection.