For a while, we are here.

Chris Radtke is a Louisville-based visual artist whose work probes the fleeting geometry of human existence. Radtke makes abstract drawings and sculptures about how the body occupies space, shifts over time, and leaves behind invisible traces of presence. Through sculpture, installation, drawing, and moving image, her work examines aging, gravity, and the quiet architecture of self.

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Work that exists in conversation with space, time, and the body.

From shattered glass and wood constructions to expansive mesh installations, Chris’s practice spans decades while remaining rooted in one enduring question: What does it mean to physically exist in a body that is constantly changing?

Her sculptural works respond to architecture, gravity, movement, and impermanence, creating environments that feel both deeply personal and universally human.

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Project Feature

Notes on Self

A twenty-year meditation on impermanence.

For over twenty years, Radtke’s Notes on Self series has charted the body’s evolution, positioning it not as a static identity, but as a temporary, spatial state.

Radtke constructs geometric forms from translucent mesh scaled precisely to her own physical dimensions of height, width, and depth. The abstract sculptures act as a kind of second skin marking the fragile boundaries between self and time.

Duplicated shaped forms can be installed as tunnels, walls, labyrinths, and immersive environments. The work reflects on aging, loss, continuity, and the quiet realities of becoming older in a culture that often looks away.

These pieces are not built to last forever. They are created to exist fully in the present, for a while.

Notes on Self

A liftime of making.

A practice still evolving.

Born in Detroit in 1946 and based in Louisville, Chris Radtke has spent decades creating work that bridges sculpture, installation, drawing, and video.

Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Speed Art Museum and 21c Museum Hotel Louisville and has been exhibited at institutions including the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art and the Cincinnati Art Museum.

In 2016, she collaborated with Louisville Ballet to create a 300-piece backdrop for a George Balanchine production.

Today her work continues to evolve, becoming lighter, more ethereal, and increasingly reflective of the fragile beauty of impermanence.

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For exhibition opportunities, commissions, collaborations, or inquiries, please contact me.

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