About the Artist
Originally from Colombia and currently working in Australia, Katherine Gailer (also known as KATIRA) creates visual narratives exploring characters, our natural environment, magical realism, cultural identity and spaces of contemporary design. She graduated with honours from a Bachelor of Fine Arts and completed an Arts Management Masters Degree– both at RMIT University. Her practice incorporates mural painting, oil painting, illustration, design and music.
Her creative expression underscores a main theme that looks at the complex relationship between fragility and strength, vulnerability and empowerment. It celebrates resilience and liberation and clamours for an urgent need to restore the invisible fabric that weaves together humans and nature.
Her artworks reclaim the space for diverse communities in art and can also be interpreted as a series of confronting tensions to articulate the essence of the Feminine as a force of relatedness in our world today. Rediscovering a sense of the sacred and revisiting our ancient past embody the driving force for the development of her artworks.
Artist Statement
“History of the western world reveals an intentional repression of the feminine viewpoint – leading to a dramatic disconnection to nature and our roots in something larger than ourselves. My work embarks on a journey towards reclaiming the feminine powers- as they exist in the shadows- while resonating with the ever-changing flux of women experience: Explosive, mysterious and interconnected.
Through my work I am constantly challenging social structures and reclaiming the space for diverse cultural expression and women at the forefront of social change.
Awards and Recognitions include:
Finalist • 2020 The Global Art Awards, Shanghai Edition
• Winner | Packers’ Art Prize and People’s Choice Award at Corangamarah Art Prize, 2018
• Winner | ROI Art Prize, Melbourne VIC
• Featured Artist Malaysia Art Expo Plus (KL, Malaysia)
• Featured Artist | Melbourne Fringe Festival Award Winning Exhibition Fifty Shades Of Blak’
• Finalist | 2017 Emerging Artist Awards (45 Downstairs Gallery, Melbourne)
• Finalist | 2017, Contemporary Art Awards (Australia)
• Finalist | 2015, Brisbane Art Prize (Australia)
• Finalist | 2014, Glencore Percival Portrait Painting Prize
• Awarded | 2014, 29th Chelsea International Art Competition (USA)
• Winner | 2011, Tolarno Hotel Annual Award (Australia)
• Winner | 2010, NMIT Print Making Annual Award (winner)
