All works are acrylic and resin on board.
My paintings deal with the tensions and dichotomies in the depiction of the natural world and our relationship to it. I am 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.
I start with poured skins of paint. The paint pours comprise of acrylic paint, inks, mediums, glitters, iridescent and phosphorescent powders. I am fascinated by the way the movement of the combined materials mimic something from the natural world such as a lava flow, a landslide, an avalanche. Within the dried paint pour I look for something that looks like a tree branch, a cliff or a mountain and then cut and collage the pieces to board. I use airbrush to achieve sky and watery effects and finally resin as a finishing surface. My paintings aim to convey ideas of nature, alchemy and creation.
Biography
Kate Shaw was born in 1969 in Melbourne and completed a Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts Honours (Painting) at RMIT University, Melbourne in 1994. In 2011 she was part of the New Psychedelia exhibition at the University of Queensland and featured at KIAF International in Seoul, Korea. Shaw has exhibited extensively throughout the Unites States where recent exhibitions included; Missing Link, Residency Unlimited, New York (2010); I Stole it. I Borrowed it. I Broke it, Stephan Stoyanoy Gallery, New York (2010); Lumen, Atlantic Salt Factory, New York (2010) and The Possibility of a Painting, Chelsea Hotel, New York. Shaw's work is featured on the cover of the current (Vol 31 No 4) issue of Artlink including an interview with Dr Steve Haley.
Kate Shaw has just returned from a year long residency in New York in 2009/2010 at Flux Factory with Residency Unlimited, funded by Arts Victoria. In Australia she was commissioned by Urban Art Projects for the City of Brisbane, Laneway Festival and has been commissioned by the Museum of Brisbane to create projections for the William Jolly Bridge. For the last 15 years Shaw has exhibited in a number of group shows within Australia and internationally including NADA, Miami, 2009; Auckland Art Fair, 2009; Singular, Luxe Gallery, New York 2008; CIGE Beijing Art Fair, Beijing, 2007; Places, Luxe Gallery, New York, 2007; U turn, Glendale College Art Gallery, Los Angeles, 2007, FIAC 2006, Grand Palais, the Louvre, Paris 2006. She has been a finalist in the Wynne Prize (2009, 2010) ABN AMRO Emerging Art Award (2007, 2010), The Fisher Ghost Prize (2008), Fleurieu Biennale and John Leslie Art Prize. She has received grants from Arts Victoria and the Australian Council for the Arts and has had residencies at 24hrArtspace, Darwin, 3rd Ward, Brooklyn and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne. Her work is held in Artbank, RACV, Macquerie Bank and Queensland University Museum collections as well as numerous private collections in Australia, America and the UK.
