Athena LaTocha: Buried Heat

University Museum of Contemporary Art

September 15 – December 13
Reception: September 24

Athena LaTocha’s practice is rooted in an emotional and sensorial response to place, grounded in rigorous research into the geography, history, and cultures embedded within each site. LaTocha’s sweeping, gestural compositions evolve through demanding physical processes — melting, pouring, digging, sifting, pushing earth and water — combined with the manipulations of natural materials such as soil, minerals, and rocks. The resulting sculptures and monumental drawings are both evocative and exacting, articulating deep temporal and physical connections between humans and the land. Athena LaTocha: Buried Heat brings together LaTocha’s 2019 iron sculpture series, Mesabi, and two large-scale drawings, La Bajada Red, 2016-2017 and Lightning Strikes Twice, 2024.

“Her art reads the land in deep time.” — The New York Times

Cast iron abstract sculpture against a white background

Athena LaTocha, Mesabi #8, 2019. Cast iron, 7 ½’’ x 11 3/4’’ x 1 1/4’’.

Athena LaTocha, Mesabi #12, 2019. Cast iron, 40 ¼’’ x 27 ¾’’ x 4’’.

Athena LaTocha

Athena LaTocha is an artist whose works on paper explore the relationship between human-made and natural worlds. Incorporating materials such as ink, lead, soils and wood, she explores mark-marking and displacement of materials made by industrial equipment and natural events. Her works are informed by her upbringing in the wilderness of Alaska. LaTocha’s process is about being immersed in these environments, while responding to the storied and, at times, traumatic histories that are rooted in place.

Her work has been exhibited widely at institutions including MoMA PS1, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, and the Brooklyn Museum. LaTocha is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, Anonymous Was A Woman Award, and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Art in America, Artforum, and Hyperallergic. She holds degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Stony Brook University and lives and works in New York.