Katerina Waller's work is a celebration of the act of painting and a playful exploration of the physicality of the materials. Drips and splashes of paint fall across and up the paintings, hinting at the physical process by which they were created; the movement of the canvas is as important in their development as the movement of a paintbrush. Waller lets the paint spread and move around her work, creating layers that crack or wrinkle as they dry, juxtaposing contrasting surfaces and textures.
Many of her paintings feature ares of spatial depth; shapes that recede beyond the picture plane, with splashes and drips of paint floating at indistinct levels within them. Surrounding these are flat areas of paint that cover large sections of the canvas, concealing the shapes and forms beneath them. The artist has selected which parts of the work she wishes the viewer to see, and has obscured the rest, inviting us to speculate on the hidden and ambiguous aspects of the painting.
The organic shapes that dominate Waller's paintings are reminiscent of cells, or the surfaces of planets, playing on the idea that they represent something minuscule or enormous. Other elements within the work are reminiscent of script or code; just like the cell-like structures that are completely fabricated and have no function or scientific value, the text suggests it may have a meaning, but the translation is elusive.
Waller offers us tantalising snippets of recognition with which we can begin to explore the painting but hides or obscures the rest, ultimately leaving us to decide for ourselves the intention of her work.
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