Feature image: Harbingers, 2026, IA&A at Hillyer in Washington, D.C. Sentinels: India ink, burned holes on linen gauze. Inhale/Exhale, Until the Last Breath: single channel video. Katherine Steichen Rosing. Photo: Lee Stalsworth
Submitted
Washington, D.C. — Made over the summer that pushed Washington into Code Purple air quality alerts from Canadian wildfire smoke, Wisconsin-based artist Katherine Steichen Rosing‘s Harbingers is an immersive installation of charred linen gauze sculptures conjuring a ghostly forest in the aftermath of wildfire.
About thirty Sentinels, 10 feet tall, are suspended from the ceiling with paths through the installation inviting viewers to contemplate the impact of climate extremes like drought and the fires that follow, not only on forests, but on human survival.
The cylindrical columns begin as stark white linen gauze, painted with India ink, then pierced by holes burned with a candle. Working with flame became a meditation on fire and carbon, and at the same time an observation of the impact of wind gusts, temperature, and oxygen on fire.
“A deep sadness set in mid-summer, burning holes in linen gauze for a new installation, as smoke from Canada and the Boundary Waters choked our skies,” Rosing says. The Boundary Waters, in northern Minnesota, and the boreal forests of Canada are places she has hiked and canoed for decades. The same smoke that darkened skies over her Madison studio reached Washington, where it pushed the region into Code Purple alerts. “On days when red flag warnings for extreme drought and wind were issued in Madison, Wisconsin, where I live, I paused the burning.”
About the artist
Katherine Steichen Rosing is known for her abstract-symbolic paintings and tree-sized immersive fiber installations centered on ecological themes connecting forests and watersheds to the climate crisis through the carbon and water cycles. Forests have been her lens to the world for 25 years; she began making installations ten years ago. Her work has appeared in more than 100 solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. She holds an MFA from Northern Illinois University and is a recipient of the Forward Art Prize and a Madison Arts Commission/Wisconsin Arts Board Individual Artist Fellowship. She lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin, and is represented by Kim Storage Gallery, Milwaukee, and Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis.
For More information:
Tim Brown, Gallery Director, IA&A Hillyer
202-338-0680, hillyerdirector@artsandartists.org
Artist Website: StudioKSR.com
9 Hillyer Court, NW
Washington, DC 20008
October 3 – November 29, 2026
Hours: Tues – Fri, 12 – 6 pm; Sat – Sun, 12 – 5 pm; closed Mondays
athillyer.org/exhibitions/harbingers