Katie Baldwin: Reimagined Landscapes

The List Gallery, Swarthmore College, is pleased to present Katie Baldwin: Reimagined Landscapes. The exhibition will be on view January 22 – February 22, 2026. Baldwin will give a talk about her work on Thursday, January 29 at 4:30 PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center (LPAC) Cinema; an opening reception will follow in the List Gallery from 5:30 to 7:00 PM. 

Katie Baldwin is widely known for creating prints using varied techniques, including letterpress, screenprint, and mokuhanga, a traditional Japanese woodblock printing using water-based inks. In 2004, Baldwin was one of seven international artists selected to learn mokuhanga, from master carvers and printers at the Nagasawa Residency on Awaji Island, Japan. Her creative practice continues to be informed by traditional craft techniques and aesthetics, a connection to the environment, and intercultural collaboration. Curated by Andrea Packard, director of the College Art Collection and List Gallery, Reimagined Landscapes includes more than 34 works by Baldwin, including mokuhanga prints, a selection of ink marker drawings, and hand-quilted textiles. Notable works, including Reclaimed Land, call attention to how our relationship to nature is both contingent and constructed.

No matter the medium, Baldwin’s tactile, handcrafted works are emotionally evocative, often conveying a dream-like quality. Blending representational and abstract imagery, she often depicts natural and human-made environments, such as rivers and gardens. Prints, such as Emergency Meeting Place, convey experiences of precarity and transition. Whether portraying figures and landscapes, building forms through expressive line work, or composing quilts with bold blocks of color, her distinctive palette, patterns, and forms create narratives that are both personal and archetypal.

Baldwin received a B.A. in Studio Art from Evergreen State College and an M.F.A. in book arts and printmaking from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Currently, she  is professor at the University of Alabama Huntsville, where she teaches printmaking and book arts. She is the co-founder of three artist working groups: wood+paper+box, the shift-lab collective, and Mokuhanga Sisters, an international print collective. 

Baldwin’s work has been exhibited by distinguished venues, including the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA., (2024); the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art in Manhattan, KS; (2023–2024); the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art in Mobile, AL (2017); and the The Print Center in Philadelphia (2013). Her artist books are included in notable collections, such as the Library of Congress, the University of California, and Yale University Library Special Collections. Baldwin’s numerous grants and awards include a Fulbright scholarship to make prints in Taiwan (2021), the Nagasawa Art Park Residency (2004), and a Fellowship from the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, County Mayo, Ireland.

This exhibition was made possible through the generosity of Joan Gordon and the Ann Trimble Warren ‘38 Exhibition Endowment.