Biographical Statement

Astrid Kaemmerling, Ph.D., is a German-born artist, researcher, and educator based in Asheville, NC. Her work spans the genres of visual, performance, and media art and strives to connect place memories of the past, such as collected travel experiences, with a critical exploration of specific neighborhoods and selected urban places. Kaemmerling has been exhibited internationally in Germany, Italy, Korea, and the United States. She has won several awards and fellowships and has had residencies at the Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto, Italy, the Vermont Studio Center, VT, Enos Park, IL, and Kala Art Institute, CA. She founded The Walk Discourse, a social practice art project, educational platform, and research laboratory providing room for public space exchanges. Founded in San Francisco, CA, and currently based in New Orleans, LA, the program aims to playfully and critically engage participants to study the urban and rural fabric.

Her interest in interdisciplinary collaboration has led her from Germany to the U.S. to the College of Fine Arts at Ohio University, where she received her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Arts, a degree positioned at the intersection of art and research. She specializes in the domain of walking art, and her writing has been published in peer-reviewed journals and publications. Current artistic research projects include a series of works that investigate “processes of home-building.”