Katherine Wai

Artist Statement

A celebration of the year a blue sofa was finally able to turn pink.

The artist draws on personal experience and relationships to inform her art. She paints as she feels, and her work is often a self-study of emotion and mood. In this exhibition, Kat has turned her lens, and captured the candid moments where others have entered her personal space. Her observations are quietly reflective and allow us to have some understanding of her external and internal worlds, in relation to others.

We experience a shift in energy as the visitors leave and Kat is once again alone, offering an introspective mood of contemplation and vulnerability.

There is a raw edge to Kat’s work both literally and metaphorically. She works quickly and in harmony with her emotions, meaning her work often feels unfinished, and yet is contained enough, that we understand it is resolved and there is no going back.

My Portraits

As a voyeur I watched the people I invited and welcomed into my life. Every moment needed to be recorded and to be held safe before I moved on. 

There is an honesty in the candid moments of intimacy between myself and my portraits. At times there has been awareness and intent in the moments and other times have been quietly snatched without fanfare or noticeable intrusion. My subjects are my friends, my family, my lovers.