Katie Kameen creates jewelry by playfully experimenting with premade plastic objects. Kameen received her BFA in 3D Studio from Eastern Illinois University, and her MFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Kameen has shown her work at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, Tennessee, the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle, Washington, Site: Brooklyn Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, and in many exhibitions across the country. Kameen was awarded the Ethical Metalsmiths Student Committee Emerging Artist Award in 2017. Her work has been published in American Craft Magazine, Friend of the Artist, and Uppercase Magazine. Kameen has exhibited internationally at venues including Kunstnerforbundet Gallery in Oslo, Norway, Galerie Marzee in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and Talente 2017 in Munich, Germany. Kameen is currently part time faculty at University of South Carolina Aiken and Augusta University.

In my work I explore the ways in which premade materials can communicate with us. Our use and treatment of everyday objects mirrors our social behavior. I draw from that to create my own path to understanding intimate and casual human connection. My process mimics a type of play as I discover how plastic objects can be reformed into oddly familiar configurations. These recognizable forms and individual components evoke a shared haptic experience, relating both to memory and the immediate objects that surround us. Cheap plastics were made to serve a specific purpose, and to do so with a limited lifespan. I manipulate these objects to subvert both qualities, and make these materials, so often ignored from oversaturation, visible again.