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Katherine Ace (American
1953–2023)
Self Portrait Somewhere Else
2004
Alkyd and mixed media with collage on canvas
54 x 78 in.

“I have never quite lived my life as ‘Here’s me,’ but rather ‘This is what I am interested in and passionate about.’”
—Katherine Ace

Katherine Ace borrows from the Dutch vanitas still-life tradition of the 16th and 17th centuries, where painters filled their compositions with skulls, clocks, and extinguished candles to remind viewers that life is brief and earthly pleasures fade. Ace adopts that structure but shifts its meaning. Her scene is filled with books, photographs, pet cats, and art supplies. Where vanitas warned against attachment, Ace shows identity as built from the joy of making and the bonds of daily life.
Ace passed away in 2023. During the pandemic she created Ace Bob Ross, a free YouTube series still available today, sharing her oil-painting practice with high school students learning from home.

On view at the Schnitzer Collection: 3033 NW Yeon. Saturday 12-6pm. Free parking, always free admission. The current show features art by:

Katherine Ace
Derrick Adams
Chul-Hyun Ahn
Robert Arneson
Richard Avedon
John Baldessari
Rick Bartow
Mel Bochner
Louise Bourgeois
Elizabeth Catlett
Judy Chicago
Richard Diebenkorn
Jim Dine
Jeffrey Gibson
Sally Haley
Keith Haring
LaToya Hobbs
Jenny Holzer
Malia Jensen
Jasper Johns
Alex Katz
Ellsworth Kelly
Jeff Koons
Karen LaMonte
James Lavadour
Roy Lichtenstein
Hung Liu
Robert Longo
Elizabeth Malaska
Marilyn Minter
Bruce Nauman
Alice Neel
Julian Opie
Anton Perich
Elizabeth Peyton
Pablo Picasso
Man Ray
Wendy Red Star
Ed Ruscha
Alison Saar
Tschabalala Self
Amy Sherald
Shahzia Sikander
Lorna Simpson
Kiki Smith
Swoon
Storm Tharp
Hank Willis Thomas
Mickalene Thomas
Andy Warhol
Carrie Mae Weems
Charles Wilbert White