Article: Lady in red captivates the library
UTAS student and artist displays work in Morris Miller
A new exhibition at the UTAS Morris Miller Library explores a young artist’s longing for a lost homeland.
Kate Piekutowski is currently undertaking a Masters of Fine Arts in Printmaking at UTAS.
The displayed selection of her elegant and moody hand-coloured etchings depict a woman in red travelling around a bleak cityscape.
At just 22, Kate’s artwork is held in galleries in Sydney, Melbourne, Launceston and Hobart. She has also held numerous solo exhibitions and just returned from a printmaking residency in Venice.
Kate said her artwork is about longing for a lost homeland. Her parents moved to Australia from Poland 30 years ago.
“It was a difficult time for them and my parents made a decision to leave to give my brother and I a better life.”
“As a first-generation child of Polish migrants I constantly question, what does it mean to belong?” she said.
“These images explore the ideal of belonging, perhaps in their most honest self, and in retrospect of my Polish diasporic experience.”
Kate said the artwork shown in the library was also about trying to find a certain arcadia or imagined land.
“In my second year of study I began to realise there were certain things influencing my work- figures, old-fashioned portraits, fabrics, lace, architecture, my heritage and my connection to my great-grandmother.
“I started to realise I was yearning for another homeland.
“This work is more than aesthetics- it represents my identity and who I am,” she said.
“At the end of the day, we are all just trying to belong and I think people connect with that.”
Kate is returning to Europe in July this year for an artist’s residency on Skopelos Island in Greece for a month.
“I proposed for that project that I would explore culture again to try and encase myself within Greek culture,” she said.
“I’m definitely interested in other countries and cultures but I keep coming back to Poland- it’s the most significant for me and it’s my home.”
Image: UTAS Masters student and artistKate Piekutowski with some of her etchings displayed in the Morris Miller Library.
Article can be found on the following website:
https://secure.utas.edu.au/staff/news/articles/lady-in-red-captivates-the-library
