Kate Shaw is a Melbourne-based artist who creates landscapes that are simultaneously sublime and toxic. Formed out of ‘paint pours’ and collage techniques, her landscapes capture the transcendent beauty of nature; the swirls of acrylic paint, ink, glitters and powders mimic the flow of natural processes. But underlying these psychedelic scenes are hints of pollution and artificiality, inducing anything from wonder to discomfort. This intersection of creation and corruption in Shaw’s alchemical creations teases out our conflicted relationship with nature – a relationship fraught with awe and fear, closeness and distance.
“My practice aims to convey ideas of nature, alchemy and cycles of creation and destruction. The landscape 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,“ comments Shaw.
Shaw’s works have been shown extensively throughout Australia, as well as New York, and Seoul. The artist has also been included in prominent Australian art prizes and is included significant private and corporate collections including Westpac Collection, Macquarie Group Collection, and the Museum of Brisbane.
