Baker Artist Portfolios

Katie Pumphrey is an American interdisciplinary artist and ultramarathon open water swimmer. Pulling from her experiences in the water, her paintings, sculptures, and installations use abstraction and imagery to investigate our anxieties, fears, and how our imagination plays tricks on us. Incorporating a bit of humor, Pumphrey explores these tensions and the connectedness between human instincts and play. She has a Bachelors of Fine Art in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her works have been exhibited in galleries across the United States, including solo exhibitions in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Key West.

On June 25th, 2024, Katie Pumphrey became the first person to complete the Bay to Baltimore swim, a 24 mile swim from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Other notable swims include the English Channel (2015, 2022), around the island of Manhattan (2017), and the Catalina Channel (2018, 2024)— those three swims make up the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. Pumphrey was the 194th person (73rd woman) in the world to achieve that honor. Her work is deeply connected to this aspect of her life. Pumphrey lives and works in Baltimore, MD.