Katie Pumphrey (b.1987) 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.
Pumphrey 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, MD, Washington, DC, Alexandria, VA, and Key West, FL. She has participated in artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Studios of Key West, Gallery Four, as well as the Creative Alliance in Baltimore where she was a resident artist from 2011-2014.
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. Pumphrey’s history-making Bay to Baltimore Swim in support and celebration for the decades-long clean up efforts to make the Baltimore Harbor swimmable and a safe recreational resource for the city. Pumphrey continues to be involved in these efforts, recently founding the nonprofit Baltimore Open Water Swimmers (BOWS), and speaking at the Swimmable Cities Summit, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Pumphrey recently joined as a signatory to the Swimmable Cities International Charter, and now serves as a Swimmable Cities Ambassador.
Other notable swims include three English Channel swims (2015, 2022, 2025), as well as 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 as an artist is deeply connected to her experiences as an athlete, as is her community outreach and advocacy. Pumphrey lives and works in Baltimore City, MD.
