Kurt Treeby

Kurt Treeby is a Buffalo, NY–based artist whose work explores the intersection of high and low art, memory, and loss through the use of fiber and textile techniques. A native of Buffalo, Treeby first studied painting, drawing, and art history at the College of Art and Design at Alfred University, earning his BFA in 1996. He completed his MFA at Syracuse University in 2001, where he began developing a conceptually driven approach to artmaking that continues to evolve across a wide range of media.

Treeby is known for reinterpreting iconic artworks and historic architecture using craft-based materials such as latch-hook rug, plastic canvas, and filet crochet. His re-creations—whether of lost masterworks by Raphael and Monet or long-demolished urban buildings—are intentionally imperfect, pixelated, and low-resolution. These pieces reflect on the fragility of cultural memory and the physical vulnerability of art itself. As he writes, “Although we think of great art as permanent and everlasting, these losses lay bare the reality of a fragile physical object.”

Through painstaking hand-stitching, Treeby transforms everyday craft materials into tributes to memory, absence, and artistic legacy. His sculptures and textile works are simultaneously historical records, meditations on loss, and playful critiques of how we assign value to art. Shadowy, incomplete, and ephemeral, they echo the way lost artworks continue to haunt the cultural imagination.

Treeby has exhibited nationally and internationally and currently teaches studio art and design at Erie Community College. He lives and works in Buffalo, NY.