Kay Healy
Through her life-sized drawn, painted, and screen-printed fabric installations, Kay Healy investigates themes of home, loss, displacement, and resilience with interview-based projects. Healy received a BA from Oberlin College and a MFA from the University of the Arts. Her installation Coming Home was purchased by the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and her work has been supported by the Independence Foundation’s Fellowship in the Arts and the Leeway Foundation. Healy has had solo exhibitions at Gallery Madison Park in New York City, Gallery Septima in Tokyo, Japan, the Windgate Gallery in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and other galleries. She has completed residencies at KKV Print Studios in Malmö, Sweden, The Cooper Union in New York City, and will participate in the Moosey Gallery Residency in Norwich, UK in Fall 2024. She is currently working on a graphic novel series for children that will be published in 2025 by Neal Porter Books, an imprint of Holiday House.
Awarded Grants
2024
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
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Overview
Kay Healy has been invited to participate in an artist residency in Norwich, UK for the month of September through Moosey Gallery. Kay will be provided a temporary apartment for her and her family, separate studio space, as well as access to Moosey’s fine art edition screen printing shop. This residency will allow Kay to construct a fabric and PVC collapsible play structure in the shape of a skull, inspired by her experience with caregiving, loss, and grief. The residency will culminate in an artist talk and open studio exhibition for the public. The skull structure will be collapsible so that Kay can travel back with it to Philadelphia, where she hopes to display it to audiences in the future.
The WOO Grant will help cover travel expenses, art supplies, and childcare costs.
2018
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
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Overview
Kay was selected by the Women's Studio Workshop for a residency at KKV Grafik Studio in Malmö, Sweden this July. During the month-long residency, Kay will interview refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and create a series of life-sized, drawn, painted, and screen-printed installations addressing themes of home, loss, and displacement. The WOO grant will cover Kay's travel, accommodations and art supplies during her time in Sweden.
As part of the residency, Kay will offer free art classes through Kontrapunkt, an organization that provides assistance and advocacy for refugees throughout Sweden. Through the classes, she hopes to build relationships with people that are interested in sharing their experiences, and to create work inspired by their stories. Select installations from the residency will be on view at the American Swedish Heritage Museum in South Philadelphia during their 2018-19 season.
2008
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Kay will conduct interviews of refugees from the senior center of South East Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition. The interviews will focus on the seniors' relationships to the concept of home and the many transitions refugees must endure. She will use the interviews to carve ancient cuneiform-style tablets. An installation of the tablets will be exhibited at the Bird Park at Gallery Joe from September to December 2008. Kay will photograph the work for a book that will include the full text from the interviews. In addition, the photos will be included in the 2009 Transcultural Exchange Conference.
