Katie Pumphrey: Ultra-Marathon Open Water Swimmer and Visual Artist

The Truth In This Art is an interview series featuring artists, entrepreneurs and tastemakers in & around Baltimore.

Katie Pumphrey (b.1987) is an American interdisciplinary artist. Her paintings, sculptures, and installations use abstraction and imagery to explore the tensions and the connectedness between human instincts and play. Her works have been exhibited in galleries across the United States, including solo exhibitions in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Key West. In 2009, she graduated from the Maryland Institute College of art with a BFA in Painting. She has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Studios of Key West, Gallery Four, and the Creative Alliance. Pumphrey is also an ultra marathon open water swimmer. On June 25th, Pumphrey became the first person to swim 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, and her experiences in the water greatly influence and drive her work. Pumphrey lives and works in Baltimore, MD.