A primary guiding factor of my work is rule-following and rule-bending. My paintings work to find a balance between strict guidelines I set for them and letting these guidelines unravel, questioning and often abandoning control. The work combines the linearity of drawing, the color and form of painting, and the three-dimensional spatiality of installation. The boundaries of these three genres are permeable and within these bounds is a push and pull of exuberance and restraint. 

My works begin through the activation of a found object, textile, color, or deliberate mark and I am actively pursuing processes that further my dialogue between freedom and limitation. I want my works to have a direct playfulness and connection to a world that feels increasingly sterile. My use of found objects employs and respects their implicit personalities and I am interested in how they combine with distinct sensibilities of painted, hand-dyed, sewn, and crafted elements. My process allows for the individual paintings to be in conversation with installation works, and within these installations the parameters of painterly space are negotiated through the understanding that it won’t exist once the work is dismantled. Every point of arrival is a point of departure and painting itself is thus a condition of temporality with which I endeavor to fully engage.




Cassie Van Offeren (b. 1996) is based out of Columbus, Ohio while getting her BFA.

Recent achievements:
︎ nominee for Yale Norfolk School of Art 2020 (cancelled due to COVID-19)
︎ studio assistant for artist Leeza Meksin in spring 2020