City Talks: Kathryn Andrews

PLUS MAGAZINE: What is the first thing you do when you wake up? 

KATHRYN ANDREWS: Intermittent fast and drink tons of black coffee.

P: Where is your favorite (go-to) restaurant in LA?

KA: LA’s taco trucks. The fried shrimp tacos at Mariscos Jalisco in Boyle Heights. Taco Zone in Echo Park, late at night. When I’m starving, I head to Viva Taco Azteca in Highland Park for carnitas.

P: What are your ways of recharging/taking breaks? 

KA: Driving. I like to take road trips, catch the scenery, and cram in audiobooks. Recently, on a three-day drive to Canada, I listened to Gabor Maté’s Hungry Ghosts and James Hollis’s The Middle Passage. 

P: What kind of song are you into these days? 

KA: Music makes me feel emotional. With everything going on in the world right now, I’m taking a pause. Last year, I was really into Pauline Anna Strom. I also love her videos.

P: Can you talk about how you started incorporating readymade and found imagery in your work 

KA: I often use objects and images from the world in my work, but I combine them with new forms that I create. I have always been interested in finding ways to avoid my own hand as a form of resistance to how identity has historically been over-associated with value.

P: What would be an unrealized project or materials/forms you wish to explore? 

KA: I’ve recently formed a collaboration with the architect Kulapat Yantrasast called Fukton. Over the years, we often talked about furniture as enthusiasts. Last year, we designed a set of chairs. Now, we are working on new forms in materials unfamiliar to both of us. It’s a sensually absurd experiment. 

P: You work very closely with a team of fabricators, printmakers, and more during the production phase, and I’m curious to know if there were any unexpected creations and what collaboration means to you. 

KA: I work with a lot of craftsmen, and some have brought great creativity to specific problems that interest me. We have been able to develop new techniques and processes together. That said, the relationship is not a true collaboration because I have final veto power. Some years ago, I did ask a couple of artists to make “my work” for me, concept and all. That was fun.

P: If you could have any artwork in your house, what would it be? 

KA: I’d have more furniture… a door by Gaetano Pesce, maybe some soft Otto Zapf shelves. For art, perhaps a giant Jannis Kounellis wall sculpture or something by Melvin Edwards.

P: How would you describe the art scene in Los Angeles? 

KA: It is changing all the time. New people are constantly arriving while others are leaving. There is no center. With the popularization of art collecting since the rise of the global art fair and the digitization of sales, anyone can come here, do anything, and get along. The community seems pretty happy to welcome new faces because LA is so isolating with its distances and traffic.

P: What changes would you like to see in the art industry at large?

KA: Less interest in art as an asset. Less focus on trends. Less didacticism. More nonsense.