Caitlyn Doran
The All-Nighter with Rabbits
Project Statement
Caitlyn considers painting something to be akin with honoring it. To her, what is severely precious, yet most in danger of being overlooked, are those everyday preoccupations and encounters between humans, their animals, their objects, and each other. She’s found using elements from her personal quotidians, both past and present, as source material and remixing them in fantastic ways makes for the most effective form of celebration.
In acrylic paint, graphite, and pastel, The All-Nighter with Rabbits re-imagines an actual gathering, but with significant changes in cast. Trappings and loved ones from Kanazawa, Moline, Tokyo, and Chicago casually occupy the same tatami laden floor, feeling altogether as familiar and intimate as it is relentlessly dream-like.
Artist Biography
Born and raised in small-town Iowa, Caitlyn Rose Doran went on to graduate from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design with honors in 2016. Shortly after, her life was turned on its head when she moved to Tokyo to teach and again when she later enrolled at the Kanazawa College of Art in 2019. In an effort to experience the ordinary anew, Doran splices objects and faces from her day-to-day to create skewed versions of a personal reality in paint.
Still heavily involved with the community personally and through organizations like the Japanese Culture Center, her more recent bodies of work operate as a surreal potpourri of contrasting cultural elements between Japan and the U.S.
To date, Doran has had several successful exhibitions, most notably her solo show ‘Facing The Little Things’ in Kanazawa and the forthcoming Weisman Grant exhibition. She is currently based in Chicago and is an MFA candidate at Columbia College.