CATYA PLATE

Artist/Director/Animator/Writer/Producer

Originally from Barcelona, Spain, and raised in Germany, Catya Plate is a Brooklyn-based award-winning artist, director, writer, animator and producer who came to New York in 1987 through a Fulbright Scholarship for post-graduate studies at the School of Visual Arts.

Known for “Cultivating Innovative Feminist Socio-Environmental Stop-Motion Animation” (Lois Weber Pioneer Award 2021 at the Queens World Film Festival), Catya has been exhibiting internationally since the mid-1980's and her work is included in private and public collections worldwide like The Brooklyn Museum and NY Public Library/Print Collection.

Reviews of her projects have appeared in The New York Times, UK Film Review, The Independent, etc. and Catya has been featured in Animation World Network, Animation Magazine and Terry Ibele’s Animation Industry Podcast, among others.

In 2009 she created Clothespin Freak Productions to bring her “Clothespin Freaks” characters to life through stop-motion animation short films. 

Clothespin Freak Productions has produced four award-winning shorts: The Reading (2010) and the ecological shorts trilogy Hanging By A Thread (2013), Meeting MacGuffin (2017) and Las Nogas (2023).

Catya’s handcrafted animated films combine imagination with humor and hope against the backdrop of a world in peril and are cautionary tales that celebrate animal ingenuity and the importance of species survivalism. Indie Shorts Magazine proclaimed Meeting MacGuffin Is the Best Stop-Motion, Ecological Thriller Out There!

In 2019, her Las Nogas screenplay won the Grand Prize for Best Animation Short Script at Flickers’ RIIFF Screenplay Competition.

In April 2023, she was awarded a prestigious NYC Women’s Fund Grant by the NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment & New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) for her stop-motion film Las Nogas which serves as proof of concept piece and first act in her stop-motion feature ALMA.

In 2023, Las Nogas premiered at the Oscar-Qualifying Flickers’ RIIFF and won the GREEN PLANET AWARD for Best Environmental Film. Additional awards - as of 2024 - include Best Short at Green Film Festival of San Francisco, Best Animation at Queens World Film Festival (NY Premiere), Best Animated Film at Fano International Film Festival (Italy Premiere), Best Environmental Short at the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology (North Pacific Premiere) and a first Grant by The Puffin Foundation for her upcoming feature ALMA.

In addition to screening her films and exhibiting her art projects she’s been an active speaker on film festival panels, an invited filmmaker to animation industry conferences, a juror for film festivals and an educator of stop motion animation workshops at universities.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 House of Yes
LAS NOGAS screening for EARTH LOVE FEST, Brooklyn, NY.

2019 Cineteca Madrid
CATYA PLATE: DISTOPIA EN STOPMOTION, Spain.

2018 Torrance Art Museum
MEETING MACGUFFIN, Torrance, CA.

2014/2015 Indianapolis Art Center
A NEW BRAVE NEW WORLD, Indianapolis, IN.

2010 Center For Book Arts
CLOTHESPIN TAROT, New York, NY.

2009 Y Gallery
TINY MESSENGERS, New York, NY.

2009 Jancar Gallery
STRING THEORY, Los Angeles, CA.

2003 Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum EXTRA SENSORY PERCEPTION, San Bernardino, CA. 

2003 Galerie Elten & Elten
CLOSE UP, Zuerich, Switzerland.

2003 Art Resources Transfer EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT CLOTHESPINS, New York, NY.

2002 Art Resources Transfer
BIO-ENCASEMENT, New York, NY.

1999 LimeLight Gallery
NO NONSENSE, New York, NY.

1997 Artists Space
ARTISTS (web) SPACE, New York, NY.

1994 The Collective Gallery
ARTIST FOR A WEEK, Edinburgh, Scotland.

1994 Alternative Arts Gallery
ARS MORIENDI IN NUMBERS, London, England.

1985 Galerie Appendix
NEUE MALEREI, Wuppertal, Germany.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024 The Brooklyn Museum
BROOKLYN ARTISTS MOVIE MARATHON, Brooklyn, NY.

2023 Lichtundfire Gallery
IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL, New York, NY.
Curated by Robert Curcio.

2018 CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporaneo)
ANIMATED FILMS & ECOLOGY, Barcelona, Spain.

2018 Ann Street Gallery
SMALL MATTER, Newburgh, NY.

2016 Lesley Heller Workspace
SHAKY GROUND, New York, NY.

2015 The Drawing Center
OPEN SESSIONS GROUP 5, New York, NY.

2015 The Drawing Center
"Name It By Trying To Name It: Open Sessions 2014-15", New York, NY. Curated by Nova Benway and Lisa Sigal.

2014 Torrance Art Museum
PREP SCHOOL, Torrance, CA.

2013 Target Gallery
Torpedo Factory Art Center, SMALL WORLDS, Alexandria, VA.

2011 Torrance Art Museum
VIDEO ROW: 3 FILMS, Torrance, CA. 

2011 Center for Book Arts
MULTIPLE, LIMITED, UNIQUE: SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION OF THE CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS, New York, NY (Traveling show)

2010 Gallery Korea
CONSCIOUS BEHIND UNCONSCIOUS, New York, NY.

2009 The Center for Book Arts
THREADS: INTERWEAVING TEXTU[R]AL MEANING,New York, NY.Curated by Alexander Campos and Lois Morrison

2009 Stewart Center Art Gallery
Purdue University, URBAN LEGENDS AND RURAL MYTHS, West Lafayette, IN. 

2008 The Museum of Arts and Crafts, YOUR DOCUMENTS PLEASE, Itami, Japan. 

2008 eyewash, ARTWALKING: BEDFORD AVENUE, Brooklyn, NY.

2007 Hunterdon Museum of Art, INNER CHILD: GOOD AND EVIL IN THE GARDEN OF MEMORIES, Clinton, NJ.

2007 Islip Art Museum
FREE PLAY, East Islip, NY.

2007 Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, DREAMS AND POSSIBILITIES, New York, NY. 

2007 Momenta Art/White Columns MOMENTA BENEFIT, Brooklyn, NY.

2006 Art at Large Gallery
TINY FINE ART, New York, NY.

2006 80 Washington Square East Galleries, SMALL WORKS, New York, NY.

2005 Hunterdon Art Museum
CREATIVE ENERGY: THE ELEMENTS, Clinton, NJ. 

2004 Adam Baumgold Gallery
UNTOLD STORIES, New York, NY..

2003 NURTUREart Gallery
ID-ENTITY, Brooklyn, NY.

2003 Fe Gallery, LUST, Pittsburgh, PA.

2003 art@large gallery
NEO-EROTIC JURIED SHOW, New York, NY. Curated by Grady T. Turner.

2002 New Bedford Art Museum
VAULT SERIES VII: UNIQUE PRINTS, New Bedford, MA.

2002 Cherrydelosreyes Gallery DERMATOME, Los Angeles, CA.

2001 Lance Fung Gallery
BUT FEAR ITSELF, New York, NY.

2001 Goethe Institut
ART IN A BOX, New York, NY.

2001 Wilmer Jennings Gallery CONFERENCE, New York, NY.

1999 Kingsborough Community College Art Gallery of the City University of New York, HANGING INSTRUCTIONS, Brooklyn, NY. 

1999 Longwood Arts Gallery
HANGING INSTRUCTIONS, Bronx, NY. (traveling exhibit)

1999 Consulate of the Republic of Hungary, NURTUREart AT THE CONSULATE, New York, NY.

1998 Islip Art Museum
ABOUT FACE: INVESTIGATING THE SNAPSHOT, East Islip, NY.

1998 SFA Gallery, Stephen F. Austin State University, TEXAS NATIONAL 98, Nacogdoches, TX. 

1997 The Bronx Museum of the Arts ARTIST IN THE MARKETPLACE-17th ANNUAL EXHIBITION, Bronx, NY.

1997 Real Art Ways
NO ENGLAND - NO AMSTERDAM, Hartford, CT.

1997 Kenkeleba Gallery
REFLECTING POOL, New York, NY.

1997 Barrett House Galleries
NEW DIRECTIONS '97, Poughkeepsie, NY. Juried by Jennifer Blessing, Associate Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

1997 Alicia Torres Fine Art
TRIBECA ARTISTS 1997, New York, NY.

1997 Longwood Arts Gallery
THE CONDITION OF PANDEMICS: TOWARDS THE MILLENIUM, Bronx, NY. Curated by Betti-Sue Hertz.

1995 Gardner Arts Centre
University of Sussex, THE WAY WE LIVE NOW, Brighton, England.

1995 CoolTan Arts
SEX, HEALTH AND EDUCATION, London, England.

1995 Lewisham Arthouse
THE ART SHOW, London, England.

1995 CoolTan Arts
SLUMP, London, England.

1994 The Collective Gallery
ARTIST FOR A WEEK, Edinburgh, Scotland.

1994 The Collective Gallery
CD2, Edinburgh, Scotland.

1991 Right Bank Gallery
IMAGES OF POWER—MEMORIES, Brooklyn, NY.

1989 Kenkeleba Gallery
7UP AND COMING”, New York, NY.

1987 Galeria Oliva Mara CONFIGURACION, Madrid, Spain.

1987 Studio Galerie, GRUPPENAUSSTELLUNG, Werkkunstschule Köln, Germany. Curated by Jörg Immendorff.