Bio
Catharine Magel has a distinguished career as a studio artist spanning over 30 years of National exhibitions in Museums and Galleries. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant and a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Grant. She is listed in Who’s Who in American Art.
Catharine received her Masters in Fine Arts in 1982 from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, New York. She received her Bachelors in Fine Arts in 1979 from Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri.
Her work is included in many permanent International collections such as The Het Kruithuis Museum in S’Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, and Daniel Jacobs in New York City as well as the American Ceramic Museum in Fuping, China.
She then began training as a scenic painter in 1991 in St. Louis and became part of the USA Scenic Artists Union. With this new experience and training, she began to get commissioned work and tackled large projects. In public art, she found a niche and thrived, incorporating painting and sculpting together in large-scale ceramic and mosaic work. “Ceramic art bridges a gap between painting and sculpture,” she says. Her largest commission is a monumental public art work entitled, “Reflecting on a River “. It is a welcome at the entrance of the Riverfront trail and graces the downtown St. Louis floodwall in celebration of the rich natural history of the Mississippi River. The ceramic sculpted work undulates in waves from 5 to 7 feet high and is 240 ft long.
Equally as impressive is the commission for art Collector, Mark Landrum, a 43-foot long mosaic from glass imported from Italy and Mexico and fabricated in Germany at Franz Mayer of Munich, and now is permanently installed in Santa Barbara, California.
Another monumental completed project is the carved brick wall project for the side of a History Museum in Kansas. Catharine designed and carved the 140 ft long wall that depicts the history of Cloud County.
There are two large sculptures in Grand Arts Center down town St. Louis, a 9’ tall mosaic sculpture Called “After Hours”, and a 12 foot sculpture called EARTH RABBIT”, both are in Strauss Park.
Her most recent sculpture is a combination of cast stainless steel, cast aluminum, ceramic sculptures, mosaic pieces and fiberglass in a piece that is 15 feet high by 23 feet long commissioned by METRO Arts in Transit called “ Changing Identities”
Presently she is working on a new piece for Webster Groves up and Coming Sculpture Park.
An exhibition in the Contemporary Museum in Nanjing China is planned for 2014 of her paintings and sculpture.
