Sprawl

About Kate Shaw

With neon colours, pastels, and glitter, Australian artist Kate Show creates spectacular psychedelic landscapes. We may feel as if we have stumbled upon another planet, but these fantastical scenes are based on real locations; inspired by… Read more

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

With neon colours, pastels, and glitter, Australian artist Kate Show creates spectacular psychedelic landscapes. We may feel as if we have stumbled upon another planet, but these fantastical scenes are based on real locations; inspired by natural landscapes in the world around us.

A stay in Iceland was the catalyst for many of Shaw’s works, including “Fjallkonan”, which is named after Iceland’s allegorical Lady of the Mountains. The fluorescent mountain range stretching out beyond a lake of surreal clarity is sublime and yet hostile, just like the volcanic landscape of the island itself. Shaw shines a light on our conflicted relationship with nature, in which we create and destroy landscapes. The connection between our closeness to nature and our detachment from it is reflected in the exaggerated artificiality of her work.

Shaw embraces the medium of painting with extraordinary style. Her special technique blends solid colours with airbrush in collage-like compositions. Plastic-looking, multi-textured rock formations emerge from mixtures of acrylic, ink, and glitter. Having firmly established herself in her country’s art scene, Shaw is now exhibiting internationally, everywhere from New York to London. With her distinctive imagery of magic, fantasy and decay, she is viewed as one of the most exciting contemporary artists in Australia.

Daniela Kummle

VITA

Born in Sydney in 1969, Shaw studied Art at the University of Melbourne. Today, she splits her time between Melbourne and New York. Her work has already been shown on four continents in numerous museums, galleries, and art fairs, including the Brooklyn Gallery in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, and the FIAC in Paris. Before focusing on painting, Shaw worked as a curator and art lecturer.