Artist Bio
“I tend to work with my hands versus my fingers as I question the traditions of both hard work and Haute Couture. I mirror the violence seen around us by physically tearing, burning, stapling, knotting and puncturing materials that tie back to my identity. To find myself I must destroy what I am given. Being from Western Kentucky, a place that values hard work in the traditional sense, I am drawn to explore heavy materials and ideas within a reconstructive fashion and art practice. I aim to rebuild an understanding of the places I live within and the identity imposed upon me.”
Isaac Couch graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in Merchandising Apparel and Textiles in 2019 and earned his Master’s of Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021. Couch has received numerous fellowships, including the Luminarts Fashion Fellowship (2021), the Fashion Council Fellowship (2021), and the Arts Club of Chicago Fellowship (2023-2024). He has exhibited his work widely, most recently at the Weinberg Newton Gallery (2021), the Comfort Station (2023), and the Co-Prosperity Sphere (2023) in Chicago and, closer to home, at the Lexington Art League (2022) and Berea College’s Doris Ullman Gallery (2025). Couch currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is an Artist in Resident with the Cliff Dwellers and the Chicago Artist Coalition.
Photo by Max Li