Biography

Tasmanian artist Catherine Stringer is best known for her dreamy underwater images.  Soulful and evocative, the underwater paintings invite reflection and  metaphor.  The worlds above and below the water can be taken to represent the conscious and the unconscious, the physical and the spiritual, the rational and the intuitive, or any other duality.   It is the convergence and integration of these dualities that is the focus of Catherine's work.

Catherine has worked extensively with other artists and performers in a variety of collaborations.  This  includes improvised performance painting with theatre, music and dance, and the painting/poetry series Dancers and Dreamers.

In August 2008 Catherine spent one month at the Red Gate Gallery Studios in Beijing. This was an exciting and stimulating experience, particularly as it coincided with the Olympic Games. Work developed from this residency was shown in the solo exhibitions  Face Value in Hobart in April 2009 and  See View at the King Island Cultural Centre in December 2009. In 2012 Catherine completed a second residency at the Red Gate Gallery Studios in Beijing, and in 2013-2014 she continued her studies of Mandarin Chinese for two months in Xi'an as part of her Diploma in Languages. Eight Weeks in Xi'an - works created during her time in Xi'an - were exhibited at the Shaanxi Normal University Centre for Academic Activities.

Catherine completed a residency at the King Island Cultural Centre in 2011. It was during her time on King Island that Catherine first began working with natural plant materials to create paper which she then uses in artworks. The 1835 wreck off King Island of the Irish convict ship Neva has been a major source of inspiration for this work, which culminated in the two exhibitions Neva Reliquary at the Moonah Arts Centre in April 2016 and Neva Vestiges at the King Island Cultural Centre in May 2016. Paintings also inspired by the Neva women's plight were on view concurrently in Melbourne in Myth and Memory at the Beth Hulme Gallery in Fitzroy North.

Iceland is currently inspiring new work during a residency at the Fish Factory Creative Centre in Stöðvarfjörður.