kate shaw artwork

kate shaw

artist in residence 2015

Kate Shaw's practice re-interprets notions of what constitutes landscape painting, both within an art historical context and a contemporary social context. The paintings deal with the tensions and dichotomies in both the depiction of the natural world and our relationship to it.

She is concurrently exploring the sublime in nature whilst imbuing a sense of toxicity and artificiality in this depiction. The intention is to reflect upon the contradiction between our inherent connection to the natural world and continual distancing from it. Her paintings aim to convey ideas of nature, alchemy and creation by operating on one level as a landscape another as abstraction.

Kate Shaw creates landscapes that are simultaneously sublime and toxic. Formed out of 'paint pours' and collage techniques, her landscapes capture the transcendent beauty of nature; the swirls of acrylic paint, ink, glitters and powders mimic the flow of natural processes. But underlying these psychedelic scenes are hints of pollution and artificiality, inducing anything from wonder to discomfort

Kate Shaw was born in Sydney, lived and worked in Melbourne, and is currently based in New York. Kate Shaw holds a BA Honors from RMIT University (1994) and a Diploma of Museum Studies from Deakin University (1997). She is represented by Fehily Contemporary (Melbourne), Sullivan and Strumpf Fine Art (Sydney), Ryan Renshaw Gallery (Brisbane) and Stephan Stoyanov Gallery (New York). Her work is held in Artbank, RACV, Macquarie Bank, Rockhampton Art Gallery, Queensland University Museum collections, as well as in many private collections throughout Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.