We The People, van Horn, DÜsseldorf, Germany 

May 19 - July 14, 2017 

Van Horn is delighted to present Katie Holten’s fifth exhibition at the gallery. We the People includes work that Holten has made in response to the 2016 U.S. election and a group of new works she has collected from friends and colleagues.

Since the 90’s, Holten has explored the limits of Western notions of “nature” and “environment” and investigated the Anthropocene’s blurring boundaries between man-made structures and organic systems in drawings, sculptures and public art. Since the election Holten has merged her ongoing activism with daily political organizing for the Resistance, a coalition of activist groups that has mobilized in response to the new administration.

Holten uses the first words of the U.S. Constitution, “We the People”, as the title for both the exhibition and a series of photo-collages of fellow resisters at rallies in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles. Documenting the diverse, colorful, witty, and creative voices of the movement, they affirm that citizens give the government its powers and that the people are uprising.

She Persisted is a series of portrait drawings of women who have inspired the artist. She made them as daily meditations. Holten’s Pussy Alphabet transforms each letter of the alphabet into a dancing femlin. The drawing is accompanied by the Pussy Font, a freely downloadable typeface. The viewer is invited to write to the U.S. president using the army of nasty women. The resulting letters resemble the earliest forms of writing.   

The exhibition will be accompanied by a zine.

Download the Pussy Font here.