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Gently unconventional, Katya lives at her own tangent to the world.

CV

Dr Jane Malthus writes of Katya Gunn's work:
Hanging hearts, a rat’s cushion: small-scale elaborate artworks made mostly of textiles, beads, and stitches can encompass vast ideas. Humanity drives Katya Gunn’s practice. Body and mind, life and death, health and illness, history and politics are compelling starting points for Katya’s research and making. Ideas are distilled and developed into beautiful forms in a variety of soft and hard media. The reflections, refractions, and absorption of light on textiles and beads are a potent, seductive factor in Katya’s art. The works attract the viewer into their often-challenging topics, rather than being confronting.

Katya’s studio is an Aladdin’s cave of treasures: fabrics, beads, yarns, threads, books, and journals compete for space in drawers, files and on shelves. She is drawn to vintage textiles and textures, especially silks, and loves to collect beautiful, interesting and even slightly macabre items. However, materials do not usually dictate her artwork. The ideas almost always come first and materials are chosen for their expressive and evocative qualities and colours. Compositions might mix familiar imagery and symbols with cryptic or coded elements, and text is used sparingly to provide clues for the viewer.

Her background and career as a medical doctor is one key to Katya’s practice as an artist: that scientific and people-focussed approach allows her to mix anatomical and allegorical references with confidence. It informs the scale and ideas in her work, the attention to detail, and the fact that a creation may well be functional as well as art. Perhaps her background also has a bearing on her level of organization. For despite the crowded, slightly chaotic studio space, Katya is organised and driven, with plans for exhibitions, work ready to show, more in progress, and ideas aplenty for future shows.
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Joint Exhibitions

2002 'Colour and Culture' with Gretchen Howard at Peter Rae Gallery, Dunedin
2000 'Passions Unveiled' with Gretchen Howard at Peter Rae Gallery, Dunedin

Group and Invited Exhibitions

2009 Included in 'Post Stitch' at Lopdell House Gallery
2003 November, 'Passions Unveiled' at Peter Rae Gallery with Gretchen Howard -- Guest artist at Otago Art Society annual exhibition
2002 Invited artist Riversdale Arts annual art exhibition
2000 Work selected for Cleveland art awards
2000 Selected for travelling exhibition of Dunedin Crafts Council to Otaru, Japan
2001 Dunedin Craft Council annual exhibition
1999 Included in juried 'Multiple Threads' exhibition at Mairangi arts centre
1999 Included in juried 'At the Turn' exhibition at Golden C'art
1998 Gray's studio Christmas exhibition and sale, Dunedin
1996 'Peek-a-boo-bra' selected for New Zealand Wearable Art show

Gallery representation

2000-closure Gallery VC, Queenstown 
2002-2006 Gateway Gallery, Lawrence, Central Otago
2003-2008 Tamarillo Gallery, Wellington

Teaching

2012 Inspirational workshop at Dunedin Public Art Gallery based on 'Angels and Aristocrats' exhibition
2008 Five day masterclass in Australia for Textile Fibre Forum
2003 November Dunedin Public Art Gallery Beading class using works in 'The PreRaphaelite dream' exhibition as inspiration
2007 University of Otago Introductory beading course for students. Run over 2-4 weeks for each of 2 years

Scholarship

2000 Funded to attend advanced beading class with American sculptor David Chatt

Demonstrations

2003 Invited artist Lawrence Summer Arts Festival
2002 Slide talk and beading demonstration for Dunedin Public Art Gallery

Events

2006 Otago Festival of the Arts, Studio crawl

Publications

2006 'Stitch' entry reproduced as feature in Otago Daily Times
2006 Included in 'Stitch' by Ann Packer
2005 Listed in Otago Art Road map
2004 Feature article in 'threads' magazine
2003 Feature article in Australian Textile Fibre Forum magazine
2002 Feature article 'Impressions', ODT; with Gretchen Howard
1998 'Obviously Otago' selected as finalist in Telecom art award
1997 'Imperial Byzantine Easter Dance' included in Embroiderers Diary published by Georgeson
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