About
Caitlin Harhai is a mixed media artist originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She graduated in June 2025 with her Bachelor of Industrial Design from North Carolina State University. Prior to her current studio practice, she worked full-time in New York City in UX Design. Harhai now maintains a full time studio in the East Village.
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Harhai’s design background continues to inform her painting practice, particularly in how she lets process lead decisions. Design taught her how to build structure, but painting is where she lets that structure breathe. At a time when abstraction dominates the market, she is interested in what figurative painting can do when it is allowed to stay loose and unresolved. Realism becomes a tool she can tighten or abandon depending on what the painting needs.
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Group Exhibitions
2025 Senior Thesis Exhibition, NC State University, Raleigh, NC
2025 Spring Maker’s Market, Fish Market Student Gallery, Raleigh, NC
2024 Ukrainian Society Art Show, The Ukrainian Society at NC State, Raleigh, NC
2022 Art Students Gallery Exhibition, Perspective Gallery, Blacksburg, VA
2021 OUTworks Exhibition, City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, CT
2020 Student Juried Show, Mt. Lebanon Artist Market, Pittsburgh, PA
Education and Honors
Grand Central Atelier, Drawing, Queens, NY, 2026​
Bachelor of Industrial Design, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 2023 - 2025
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Ukrainian Society Scholarship Award
Rome Art Program, Painting, Rome, Italy, 2021
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Rome Art Program Scholarship
Bachelor of Industrial Design, (incomplete) Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 2020 - 2022
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Calhoun Honors Discovery Program Scholarship Award
Mt. Lebanon High School, Pittsburgh, PA, 2020
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Mt. Lebanon Artists Market Scholarship Award
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Reflections District Winner Scholarship Award
Professional Experience
UX Design Intern, Tinuiti, New York, NY June 2025 - Nov 2025
Design Intern, Common Impact, New York, NY July 2025 - August 2025
Student Designer, LD Seating, Prague, Czechia Jan 2024 - April 2024
Product Design Intern, Matthews International, Pittsburgh, PA May 2023 - August 2023
Research Assistant, Virginia Tech College of Design, Blacksburg, VA Sep 2022 - Dec 2022