Education
Whitmarsh received an Master of Fine Arts from the University of New Orleans and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute, both in painting.
Whitmarsh received an Master of Fine Arts from the University of New Orleans and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute, both in painting.
Working predominantly with textiles, Whitmarsh uses hand-stitched embroidery to fabricate replicas of personal and cultural ephemera. Her embroidered canvases and soft sculptures reference contemporary popular culture and the 1970s and "80s eras of her childhood. Her most recent body of work, Fabricated Revisions, consists of "imagined, handmade revisions" of past covers of prominent art magazines, featuring female artists who were overlooked at the time.
lieutenant"s something peripheral to my view that influences my vision rather than being a focus.
I don"t believe I could locate it… The artists I find compelling are mostly women and I decided to pay tribute to this personal fact. Many of these works are from a fictionalized past
From 1970-1980, Artforum devoted 5 of its 99 covers to women artists."
Whitmarsh has shown her work internationally, including solo exhibitions at New Image Art, Jack Hanley (New York), Elaine Levy Project (Brussels), Kling & Bang Gallery (Reykjavik), Krets Galleri (Malmo), and Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects (Toronto), among others Her work has been included in group shows at the Zürich Museum of Design, Wolfsonian Museum (at Art Basel Miami Beach), Galerie Libraire (Hong Kong), White Columns and Gavin Brown"s Enterprise as part of the Drunk versus
Stoned show. In 1996 Whitmarsh began creating merchandise under the moniker "Tiny Industries", self-publishing Snow Monkey comic books, producing puppet shows and 6mm stop action short films as well as making hand-embroidered wallets and bags.
Since 2006, Tiny Industries has been on hiatus due to the demands of Whitmarsh"s fine art career. In 2010, Whitmarsh was commissioned by Amy Sedaris to do the embroidery for "Simple Times, Crafts for Poor People". She was also commissioned by David Byrne to embroider the cover artwork of his "Ride Rise Roar" tour Digital Video Disc. Todd Oldham has used two of her drawings for paint-by-numbers sets in his Kid Made Modern line of craft and art projects for children.
About this body of work, Whitmarsh notes, "The way that I am interested in feminism is the way I am interested in many things. I am interested in watching the process of feminism rather than trying to locate lieutenant
Between 1998 and 2000, Whitmarsh played keyboard as a founding member of the instrumental band The Hong Kong, with Harold Griffin, Matt Salata, and Aaron Carroll.