Katie Buckett

Katie Buckett specialises in hyper-real, large-scale paintings. Originally from Ohio, Katie graduated from the prestigious Pratt Institue in New York with a Bachelor of Fine arts in 2007. Her work was awarded an honorable mention at the 2007 Pratt Senior Class Exhibition. This same year, Katie took her first steps into the Bushwick Arts scene, founding the ‘Hospitium Collective’ – a gallery that allowed artists to earn 100% of their commission on sales in return for helping organise the exhibitions and running of the space. Katie subsequently curated many exhibitions in Bushwick open studios, becoming a key contributor to the growing Bushwick’s art scene that has now exploded in New York.

Katie describes herself as a realist artist. Her paintings are based on photographic references which the artist takes herself. From this source material, Katie captures the light and form of her subjects and adds hyper-realistic detail which is then set against a surrealist scene in a traditional palette. The result is a juxtaposition of ordinary and bazaar objects and scenes, causing the viewer to let go of reality and explore their own person myths and associations.

For this exhibition, Katie uses her hyper-real painting skills to create juxtopositions between animal forms and human traits, forming surrealistic worlds where the viewer can both be lost within, and closely relate to, the scene in front of them.

There is a way to see certain human behaviours through the guise of how predators react, and how their prey react, and there is a dance between strong anamalistic feelings and passive feelings.- Katie Buckett In her initial stages of creating a work, Katie will use graphite sketches of a subject, as well as photography to highlight specific areas of light and form. Her technical use of light and form are key to creating realism to these otherwise bazaar scenes.

Katie explains: "Light is this universal language that we all understand. Our understanding of light and form allows us to look at something that is not necessarily real, but be able to translate that into our mind as 'this is possible."