Kena Kitchengs

STATEMENT
Ever since I heard about the possibility of creating books that are also artworks, I have been experimenting with artists’ books. I have been making artists’ books for the past ten years. When I first started out, I went in with a printmaking perspective, creating completely hand-made, very small editions. I have since experimented some with one-of-a-kind books, and I have also delved into textiles and ceramics, intending to continue expanding my artistic practice through different techniques as well as different subject-matters.
I am drawn to myth, and to depict stories through the form of the book itself, so that the shapes and even the interaction with the book are all part of the story. I am interested in the human gaze towards animals, and the way we see ourselves reflected upon other species, but I have also done work around the poetry of Sappho and William Blake, and have even done commentary on the book as object through artists’ book form. I also like to theorize on the matter of book works, leading me to write articles as a way of understanding myself what this is all about.

BIOGRAPHY
Kena Kitchengs was born in 1989 in Caracas, Venezuela. After getting her bachelor’s degree in interactive design she dove into printmaking. She finished her master’s in fine art in 2018, where she developed artists’ books projects done with printmaking techniques. She has participated in numerous residency programs in Mexico and has offered courses and lectures about artists’ books in various Universities. She has also published scholarly articles on the subject in peer-reviewed journals. She won the Grand Prix awarded by UNI Graphica festival in 2019 (Kovalenko Museum Krasnodar, Russia) and was selected for one of Print Austen’s 5×5 awards in 2022. Her work is held in the National Library of Mexico, Stanford University and the Kovalenko Museum and has been included in several group exhibitions organized by the National Library of Mexico and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, among many others. Her work has been selected in biennials and festivals in Mexico, the United States, Norway and Russia. She currently teaches a lithography course in the National Autonomous University of Mexico graduate art program.

Kena Kitchengs’ Website