Athena LaTocha
Photo by Brad Ogbonna
Athena LaTocha is an artist whose massive works on paper explore the relationship between human-made and natural worlds, grounded in indigenous philosophies of the land and in conversation with the Earthworks artists of the 1960-70s.
She incorporates materials such as ink, lead, soil, and wood while looking at correlations between mark-marking and displacement of materials made by industrial equipment and natural events. Her works are inspired by her upbringing in the wilderness of Alaska, the monumentality of the terrain, and the impact of the oil and gas industry upon the land. Research- and fieldwork-driven, LaTocha’s process is about being immersed in these environments, while responding to the storied and, at times, traumatic cultural histories that are rooted in place.
New York, NY
Born 1969, Anchorage, AK
2007 MFA Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
1992 BFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL