About
Katie West is an artist and Yindjibarndi woman based in Nyoongar Ballardong country, working in installation, textiles and social practice. The process and notion of naturally dyeing fabric underpin her practice – the rhythm of walking, gathering, bundling, boiling up water and infusing materials with plant matter. Using found and naturally dyed textiles, video, and sound, Katie creates installations, textile pieces, and happenings that invite attention to the ways we weave our stories, places, histories, and futures.
Katie studied visual art at Edith Cowan University (2009) and Sociology at Murdoch University (2013). In 2017 Katie completed a Master of Contemporary Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, graduating as the recipient of the Dominik Mersch Gallery Award and the Falls Creek Resort Indigenous Award.
Katie has presented solo exhibitions TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville and West Space, Melbourne for Next Wave Festival 2016, and participated in group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne and Shimmer, Rotterdam.
Katie also shares a collaborative project with artist and writer Fayen d’Evie entitled Museum Incognita. Sparked by asking what forms a decolonised museum may take, Museum Incognita revisits neglected, concealed, or obscured histories, activates embodied readings, and archives ephemeral artworks and practices. Founded on a custodial ethic, the infrastructure enfolds performative encounters and a nomadic sculptural architecture, with gathering vessels, botanical furnishings, auditory texts, and tactile mnemonics for oral storytelling.
Exhibitions and residencies for the Museum Incognita project include: When the other meets the other, curated by Biljana Ciric, Cultural Centre of Belgrade, Serbia; Summer Residency: Museum Incognita, Blindside, Melbourne VIC; A thousand times the rolling sun, curated by Gabriel Curtin, HM Prison, Beechworth, VIC; and the University of Melbourne’s Department of Geography Artist in Residence Program.
katiewestprojects@gmail.com
Instagram: @katiewularni
Image: Edwin Sitt
Education
2017 Master of Contemporary Art, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne
2013 Bachelor of Art (Sociology), Murdoch University
2009 Bachelor of Art (Visual Art), Edith Cowan University
Academic Appointments
Current Sessional Academic, Open Universities Australia, School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry (MCASI) Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University
2014-15 Sessional Academic, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Curtin University
2012-13 Sessional Academic, School of Art and Design, Justice and Equity Through Access (JETA), Curtin University
Awards
Dominik Mersch Gallery Award, Victorian College of the Arts & Dominik Mersch Gallery, 2017
Falls Creek Resort Indigenous Art Award, Victorian College of the Arts & Falls Creek Resort, 2017
Kickstart, Next Wave Festival, 2015
Collections
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Central TAFE Art Collection, Perth, Australia
Print Council of Australia, Melbourne, Australia
Bibliography
Tracks We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara, 2022, FORM, Perth
Curatorial Feelings, Eloise Sweetman, 2021, Shimmer Press, Rotterdam
Solo Exhibitions
2022
We hold you close, curated by Eloise Sweetman, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth WA
2019
wilayi bangarrii, wanyaarri (go for a walk, listen), Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney NSW
Clearing, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville VIC
2018
Warna (ground), Caves Gallery, Melbourne VIC
Muhlu Garwarrn / cool time hot time, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney NSW
2016
Decolonist, Perth Centre for Photography, Perth WA
Decolonist, West Space, Next Wave Festival 2016, Melbourne VIC
Group Exhibitions
2022
Tracks We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA
Notions of Care, Bus Projects with NETS Victoria, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, Swan Hill VIC
2021
Temporal Artefacts, Benalla Art Gallery, Benalla VIC
A Biography of Daphne, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne VIC
Notions of Care, Bus Projects, Melbourne VIC
Cry of the Land, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne VIC
2020
Improvements & Reproductions, West Space, Melbourne VIC
Higher! Higher! Lower, Lower. Louder! Louder! Softer, Softer, Shimmer, Netherlands
2019
Islands Become Mountains, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney NSW
Strangers and Those We Hold Dear, MADA Gallery, Melbourne VIC
Installation Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney NSW
Zephyr, Walker Street Gallery, Melbourne VIC
Healing Practices, Bundoora Homestead, Melbourne VIC
2018
Australiyaniality, Holmes à Court Gallery @ no. 10, Perth WA
Dissident Assemblies, Kings Artist Run, Melbourne VIC
Standing Still; looking back, looking forward, curated by Jessica Clark, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne VIC
A thousand times the rolling sun, curated by Gabriel Curtin, HM Prison, Beechworth, VIC
Summer Residency: Museum Incognita, Blindside, Melbourne VIC
2017
When the other meets the other, curated by Biljana Ciric, Cultural Centre of Belgrade, Serbia
Holding is next to knowing, Sister Gallery, Adelaide SA
Sky Country, Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne VIC
Feedback Loop, Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne VIC
The List, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne VIC
2016
Gathering Three Frogs, PastPresent, Kadist, San Francisco USA
Roll on, Roll on, Phenomena (until you are no more), curated by Eloise Sweetman, Jan van Eyck Academy, The Netherlands
FlashBlaks to the Future, curated by Megan Cope, MCA ARTBAR - Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney NSW
50 Shades of Blak, Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne VIC
Tell me what you have and I will know what you are, Dissect Journal, Melbourne VIC
Seeking Asylum in Country: Western Australian Landscapes, PS Art Space, Fremantle WA
Radical Ecologies, PICA, Perth WA
Miss-Represent, Incinerator Art Space, Sydney NSW
Stations of the Cross, Wesley Church, Perth WA
2015
Revealed, Gallery Central, Perth WA
2011
Familiar Unfamiliar: Print Council of Australia 45th Anniversary Exhibition, curated by Rona Green; Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, VIC (2013), s.p.a.c.e Gallery, TAS (2012), Tweed River Art Gallery, NSW (2012), C3 Contemporary Art Space, VIC (2011)
2009
Australia Does Not Exist, Kurb Gallery, Perth WA