Kat Flyn Mixed Media
American, b. 1946
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove of artifacts and collectibles which she began using to create assemblage art in the 1990s. In 2000 she sold her business and moved to Cuyamaca, a remote community in the mountains outside of San Diego to devote herself exclusively to her artwork. In 2003, her work was interrupted when the Cedar Fire swept through San Diego County and destroyed the forest, her home and studio along with almost all of her collections and works of art. Following the fire, she relocated to San Francisco, where she spent a decade concentrating on her art in her studio in SOMA and exhibiting at galleries in the Bay Area. In 2015, she returned to San Diego and now works out of her studio in La Jolla, exhibiting there and in Los Angeles. Flyn refers to herself as an Assemblage Sculptor and her works as Political Art or Protest Art. She separates herself from other assemblage artists in that she only employs saved as opposed to found objects in her work; and her pieces always have a political or cultural narrative to them rather than being surreal or abstract. She also constructs or refashions many of the pieces which she uses in her art, a soft drink box into a tenement building (Affordable Housing 2017), a jewelry box into a wheelchair (Last Lily Foot 2016), an old shoe shine box into a hearse (Katrina 2018). The result is her work is closer in appearance to Folk Art than Assemblage Art.
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Artist: Kat Flyn
Marriage Equality
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work celebrates the passage of the Marriage Equality Act. Two old fashion shaving brushes represent a gay couple sanctifying their union inside a chape...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Bride
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: old wood mantle clock box refashioned to resemble a Morocco Riad mansion, 6 antique painted skittles pins, antique photo with ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Found Objects, Mixed Media
Death of a Racist Stereotype
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Antique large handmade wood racist “Dancing Dan” puppet with exaggerated lips and distressed clothes, handmade trumpet, old wood handmade coffin. Can be a wall object or shelf...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Shooting Gallery
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
This takes dead aim at how being Black in our culture is a very dangerous game. The imagery is of an old arcade shooting gallery. Throughout the 1800s, right up until the 1960s, carnival games...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Karen
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Handmade old wood throne, hand carved wood puppet in old dress and boat flag sash, real pearls, vintage Rolex watch, probably fake, vintage painted pictures girls' career game pieces, handmade wood controller, antique sterling silver hand mirror...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Noah's Slaughterhouse
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: painted wood building refashioned out of an old seed box, constructed old wood toy boat to resemble the Ark, vintage carved & painted an...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Found Objects, Mixed Media
Beyond the Wall
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Medium: Unusual antique racist carnival baseball toss game-head of racist stereotype Mexican man (hat knocks off when hit with ball), Wall constructed of wood with acrylic paintings & drawings of Mexican asylum seekers and Gandhi's shadow, vintage metal toy...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Found Objects, Mixed Media
Endless Crusades (The)
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Medium: antique wood Mexican Nicho shrine with drawer in back to collect coin donations, old wood legs with wooden wheels, Antique WWI brass artillery sh...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
The Doll House
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Ammo Box
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: WWI ammo box remade into an ambulance, metal blimp, hand painted Red Cross, inside - Red Cross armband & old photo of soldier and nurse,...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Room Service
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Antique carved & painted wood racist stereotype maid holding vintage toy cap hand grenade in grenade canister used in Afghanistan
"Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
White Man's Burden
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: antique water-buffalo trophy horns with attached wood American flag crest from the Filipino/American War period (1899-1902). Large vintage rifle box...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
The Last Stand
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: wood stadium-like stands with 13 hand-carved & painted people, 1 resin & wood figure, painted reversible wood carnival game clown with one side a smile and the reverse a frown, hand-painted wood flag...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Found Objects, Mixed Media
The Science is Not Settled
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Of course, the Science is settled with regards to the connection between tobacco and lung cancer. In response to the impact this had on the tobacco industry, big corporations began v...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Butch
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Here's to all the girls who risked disapproval and ridicule from their peers and parents as they shunned dolls and dresses for the toys and lives their brothers had.
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Kat Flyn i...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Under Repair
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Three vintage wood handmade and jointed dancing racist stereotype figures painted as Uncle Sam, one handmade vintage painted wood stereotype cutout. Handmade painted wood American...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Being Harveyed
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work is a crude – but of course that is the point – depiction of Harvey Weinstein's alleged serial acts of sexual harassment, assault, and even rape; acts long and shamefully ig...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Hymnal (The)
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
In this series, titled Ghost Portraits, an individual, long deceased, is represented through a collection of “saved” items – old photographs, a lock of hai...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Fortress America
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: vintage wood fort with hand-painted graffiti, a vintage handmade wood carving of Uncle Sam & Trump, confederate flag scrap blindfold, metal chains, 4 vintage fl...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Hail Mary
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
I am paying homage to all those Black single parent moms who work menial jobs, often more than one, so their children can have a better life…Saints.
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Kat Flyn is a self-taught a...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
The American Way
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: vintage wood boxes containing 20 vintage handmade & painted wood toy game men, vintage handheld dexterity game that reads “The American Way – Liberty and Justice for All...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Visitors
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: old wood dugout made from an antique stool, hand-painted graffiti on all sides & back & roof under old wood painted and distressed scoreboard with graffiti bench inside.
"I like using baseball...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Trailer Park
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
The election of Donald Trump placed a spotlight on lower-class white families. This work lampoons the stereotypes we often have of those families. The piece is intentionally whimsical. The point is that until we see beyond superficial (and misleading) stereotypes, we have little hope of making any progress toward solving issues related to this, or any, class of individuals.
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Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove of artifacts and collectables, which she began using to create assemblage art in the 1990's. In 2000 she sold her business and moved to Cuyamaca, a remote community in the mountains outside of San Diego to devote herself exclusively to her artwork. In 2003 her work was interrupted when the Cedar Fire swept through San Diego county and destroyed the forest, her home & studio along with almost all of her collections and works of art. Following the fire she relocated to San Francisco, where she spent a decade concentrating on her art in her studio in SOMA and exhibiting at galleries in the Bay Area. In 2015 she returned to San Diego and now works out of her studio in La Jolla, exhibiting there and in Los Angeles.
Kat Flyn refers to herself as an Assemblage Sculptor and her works as Political Art or Protest Art. She separates herself from other assemblage artists in that she only employs “saved” as opposed to “found” objects in her work; and her pieces always have a political or cultural narrative to them rather than being surreal or abstract. She also constructs or refashions many of the pieces which she uses in her art – a soft drink box into a tenement building (Affordable Housing 2017), a jewelry box into a wheelchair (Last Lily Foot 2016), an old shoe shine box into a hearse (Katrina 2018). The result is her work is closer in appearance to Folk Art than Assemblage Art.
STATEMENT:
Strictly speaking I am an assemblage artist, but in fact I construct more than assemble my works. I search out collectables, artifacts and woodcarvings and then build scenes to make statements regarding American society. Even when using artifacts from earlier centuries, my theme is almost always about contemporary America. Social injustice, racism, sexism, and violence - aspects of our national psyche – exist in the present but have their seeds planted in our past. Additionally, the artifacts I use often are meant to amplify the meaning of the work. For instance, the Black stereotype wood figures I use in many of my pieces were almost certainly crafted by a White person. By using such artifacts I ask: what kind of society produces such items in the first place?
In my art I make a strict distinction between found objects and saved objects.. A found object - which most assemblage artists use in their works - is devoid of intrinsic or emotional value, having been discarded by its owner as worthless or broken. A saved object on the other hand has retained value, either because it was intrinsically valuable or because emotional value had been added to it (such as a photograph, an old shoe, a vintage toy) and consequently it was saved rather than discarded. The fact that I only use “saved objects” often results in viewers being attracted to the individual pieces within my works rather than seeing the narrative I am attempting to portray.
The pieces on display in this exhibit are from my American Home Series. I have assembled an array of old artifacts, carved figures, and iconic symbols, each spotlighting an aspect of living conditions within our borders; and as is consistent with my art, focus is placed on failings in our social contract – overcrowded tenements, trailer parks...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Washerwoman's Daughter
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work pays homage to the sacrifices that were made – especially by African-American women working menial labor jobs – so that the next generation could have a chance for a better...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
The Greatest Show On Earth
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
It is a sign of an unhealthy society when fringe personalities are increasingly found not on the fringe but in its mainstream. They bring with them ignorance, prejudice, and irration...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Found Objects, Mixed Media
The Wall
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work references “The Wall” that Trump made a central part of his campaign for president and which, at the date of this piece's completion, still looms large in his demands for i...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Sentinel Species
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
It is now 2020 and Covid-19 is loose in the world. Medical personnel are our first line of defense against this out-of-control pandemic. We seem able to provide weapons and protective gear for the police as they battle protestors, who are marching against racial injustice, but not able to provide PPE clothing and other medical equipment...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
It's Only a Game
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Medium: very old hand-carved bat, old handmade ball, hand-carved wood toy plane, Old wood handmade toolbox, one photo of young men gathered to play baseball ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Found Objects, Mixed Media
Lady Parts
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work is fashioned as a cash register, including brothel coins, to signify how our culture cashes in on the female anatomy. (Note: It includes a Playboy Bunny Manual from the 196...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Street Walker
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Much has been written about women who walk the streets looking for men to pay them for sex. Is this anyone's first career choice? A Victorian corset a...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Had Wilson
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
This is a portrait of a Zydeco rub-board (frottoir) player and his homemade instrument with a beer can tambourine, metal shaker, and old used accessories hanging from the rub-board.
...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Go Ask Alice
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work references the anti-abortion movement in Texas, as well as many other states, where they have attempted to curtail a woman's Choice to the point that the only realistic cho...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Repressed Memories
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Hand carved wood woman tied to hand carved staff of woman with snake used as handle of old wood toolbox, old rolls of string, twine & rope, hand made wood & gesso articulated man...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Hard Time
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Mass Incarceration has become a civil rights issue in our country. People of color are dramatically overrepresented in our prison system, mainly due to nonviolent crimes stemming fro...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Last Lily Foot
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Foot binding was a practice that crippled Chinese women for a thousand years and vestiges of it linger in the spiked heel and high heeled fashion popular in the present day. The idea...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Black Jack
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
This very simple and straight forward presentation consists of three weapons, a billy club, a truncheon, and a sap, all employed historically by the police, and a statue of an Africa...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Home Grenade
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Medium: Vintage wood pantry shelf with wood transfer photos of dancing hand grenades & cupcakes and housewives with guns, vintage decals, 5 food cans with ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Found Objects, Mixed Media
Home by Christmas
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
In the fall of 1914 soldiers marched off to War singing the popular song, “We'll Be Home by Christmas.” The four years of incredible carnage that ensued should have stood for all tim...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Ladies Room
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
The question of gender assignment has recently received media attention after North Carolina repealed an anti-discrimination law aimed at allowing access to public bathrooms based...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Another Mourning
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Flashback
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: vintage wood "creeper", framed with deconstructed 1970s frame, vintage flag bell bottoms, vintage Peter Max sneakers, photo transfer of manipulated photo on canvas, old top hat with Zig Zag man and anti-war button, Conscientious Objector book, Volkswagen Repair for Idiots book, old photos, political pins, 1960s pins, metal flower pins...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Trump Memorial
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
A model of the Lincoln Memorial is defaced, suggesting that metaphorically Trump has debased our public discourse with his lies and incessant tweeting. A contrast is drawn between Li...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Traveling Show
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Mule Twins
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
The word “Mule” was commonly used to refer to African Male Slaves. This work has many of the components and references that show up in my other works - references to how African Amer...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Dream On
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
“Love,” to quote the Beatles, “was all you need.” Looking back, the Hippie subculture, included a high dosage of naiveté.
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Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working pr...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Jubilee
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
In this series, titled Ghost Portraits, an individual, long deceased, is represented through a collection of “saved” items – old photographs, a lock of hai...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Buckaroo
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
This piece, along with its accompanying graphic book, is about the limitations society puts on girls. Just when a girl thinks she has the hang of it, she is introduced to high heels ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
In Memory of Sally Hemmings
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Victorian blouse, antique mirror, photo, necklace, old frame
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KAT FLYN is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Oath (The)
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
In this series, titled Ghost Portraits, an individual, long deceased, is represented through a collection of “saved” items – old photographs, a lock of hai...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Ghost Girl
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
In this series, titled Ghost Portraits, an individual, long deceased, is represented through a collection of “saved” items – old photographs, a lock of hai...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
King Cotton
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
King Cotton was a slogan of the Deep South. The stereotyped wood figures on top are jubilant. The photos represent the two opposing sides of the slave economy.
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Kat Flyn is a se...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Child Bride
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Birthmark
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
The life simulated here is of a young mixed race woman facing life in a Jim Crow era - an era where one drop of African American blood consigned a person to a second- class existence...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Magdalene Laundries
By Kat Flyn
Located in New Orleans, LA
The Magdalene asylums, also known as the Magdalene Laundries, were institutions set up to house “fallen women.” The women – young girls usually - confined in these institutions were,...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kat Flyn Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
Kat Flyn mixed media for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Kat Flyn mixed media available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Kat Flyn in mixed media, found objects and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Kat Flyn mixed media, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Natasha Zupan, Jessica Houston, and Katie VanVliet. Kat Flyn mixed media prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $500 and tops out at $9,375, while the average work can sell for $2,388.