About
Katie West is an artist and Yindjibarndi woman based in Noongar Ballardong Country. Her practice is grounded in the understanding that the health of human society and Ngurra (Country) mirror one another. Through installations of found objects and sound transmitted via radios, textiles, video and photography, Katie’s works 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.
In 2022, Katie presented the solo exhibition ‘We Hold You Close’, with curator Eloise Sweetman, at PICA for the Perth Festival and participated in group exhibitions ‘Primavera 2022: Young Australian Artists’, MCA, Sydney and ‘Tracks We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara’, produced by FORM and presented at AGWA.
In 2023, Katie was a ‘Ramsay Art Prize’ finalist, presented at ‘The National 4’, Sydney, and in the USA as part of the Independent Curators International (ICI) supported touring exhibition, ‘Actions for the Earth’, curated by Sharmila Wood.
katiewestprojects@gmail.com
Instagram: @katiewularni
Image: Chad Peacock
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
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
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
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
2025
West Space Commission, Collingwood Yards, Melbourne VIC
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
2024
Low Stakes: Chair Design by Australian Creatives, Goolugatup, Perth WA
2023
Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide SA
Actions for the Earth: Art, Care & Ecology, Curated by Sharmila Wood, Independent Curators International, Contemporary at Blue Star, San Antonio TX
The National 4, Curated by Aarna Hanley & Freja Carmichael, Carriageworks, Sydney NSW
2022
Primavera 2022: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney NSW
Ngali Jugun Ganaree (Of Our Country), Curated by Stephanie Beaupark, First Draft, Sydney NSW
Pliable Planes, UNSW Galleries, Sydney NSW
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)