Biography

Born and raised in Minnesota, Kellie Hames attained her BFA in printmaking from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2010.

Pursuing her love for lithography, Hames attended the world-renowned Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2011. This institution accepts eight students each year to study all aspects of fine art lithography and collaborative printing. After successfully completing the first year Printer Training Program Hames was solely chosen to stay for a second year to work in conjunction with senior shop manager and professional printer Bill Lagattuta in the Master Printer Training Program. Together Hames and Lagattuta worked with and printed for nationally and internationally renowned artists including Charles Arnoldi, Alison Saar, Jim Dine, Toyin Odutola, Willie Cole, and Matt Magee among others. After successfully completing the second year apprenticeship Hames was awarded a Master Printer certificate from Tamarind Institute and to this day holds the record for the most editions pulled by a second year apprentice printer.

Following her study in Albuquerque, Hames returned to the Midwest to obtain her MFA and work with Michael Barnes and Ashley Nason at Northern Illinois University. During the summers of 2015, 2016 and 2019 she was invited to work as shop manager and artist in residence at Atelier Le Grand Village near Massignac, France. Currently she works as the Print Technician for Carnegie Mellon University, overseeing both the traditional printmaking facilities, as well as the digital print facilities. She routinely teaches the Introduction to Print Media course, and summer Pre-College print sessions.

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most notably at the Musee du Ussell (Ussell, France), the Plains Art Museum (Fargo, ND), The North Dakota Museum of Art (Grand Forks, ND), as well as a solo exhibition at Spudnik Press (Chicago, IL) among others.

Hames currently resides in Pittsburgh, PA.