My art practice is deeply intertwined with the urgent environmental challenges of our time. As a multidisciplinary artist, I merge traditional and digital media, pushing the boundaries between painting, photography, and artificial intelligence to create evocative works that reflect the fragility of our natural world. My work is not just a visual exploration but a response—an attempt to bear witness to the impacts of climate change, bushfires, and ecological destruction.

At the core of my practice is an engagement with the elemental forces of nature. My experience of the 2019/20 Australian bushfires profoundly shaped my work, compelling me to explore the thin boundary between civilisation and catastrophe. The charred landscapes, the loss, and the resilience of nature all inform my imagery, which oscillates between beauty and devastation. I am fascinated by how nature persists, regenerates, and transforms—concepts that I translate into my art through layering, fragmentation, and abstraction.

My process is fluid, experimental, and rooted in materiality. I often begin with photography—capturing landscapes, burnt wood, ephemeral light, and decaying organic matter. These images become the foundation for digital collages, where I layer and manipulate textures, allowing the works to evolve through a combination of intuition and technical precision. AI-generated imagery is sometimes introduced, blending the organic with the artificial, mirroring the tension between the natural world and human intervention. Whether digital or physical, each piece becomes a meditation on transformation—echoing the cycles of destruction and renewal found in the environment.

My art serves as both a warning and a requiem—an invitation to look closer at the landscapes we inhabit and the marks we leave upon them. By layering imagery, juxtaposing the ephemeral with the permanent, and fusing organic forms with technological interventions, I aim to create works that are immersive, unsettling, and thought-provoking. At its heart, my practice is about storytelling—capturing the tension between beauty and loss, resilience and fragility, the past and an uncertain future. Through my work, I hope to engage the viewer in a dialogue about the climate emergency, urging reflection and action in the face of an ever-changing world.

Biography

Katherine Boland is an artist based in Merimbula on the southeast coast of Australia. Her practice spans painting, photography, digital media, and artificial intelligence to explore the beauty and fragility of the natural world. Katherine’s work responds to the profound challenges posed by climate change, aiming to inspire connection with the Earth and urgency for its protection.
 
Since the devastating 2019/20 Australian bushfires that swept through her region, Katherine has used her art to reflect on humanity’s relationship with nature and the ecological perils we face. Her recent explorations include the creative potential of fire as both a destructive and generative force, as well as the integration of emerging technologies to communicate themes of environmental care and resilience.

In 2020 Katherine was selected to participate in OUTPUT: Art After Fire, an international pilot project funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which supported artists from southeast Australia and the American West in creating works that reflected their bushfire experiences. Her work has been featured in significant global forums, including the DigitalArt4Climate Art Award at the 2021 United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow and the Art Speaks Out Exhibitions at the 2022, 2023 and 2024 United Nations Climate Conferences in Egypt, Dubai and Azerbaijan, respectively. In late 2023, Katherine’s work, Fire Flower No. 8, created with fire itself, achieved global recognition when it was presented by the Australian Prime Minister as a gift to President Joe Biden at the White House during an official visit to Washington.

Katherine has been the recipient of several prestigious Australian art prizes, including the 2023 National Capital Art Prize (Sustainability Category) the 2023 Burrinja Climate Change Biennale Art Award and the Heysen Art Prize for Interpretation of Place in 2009. Her work is held in corporate, public and private collections in Australia, Europe, Asia and the USA and her memoir, Hippy Days, Arabian Nights was published by Australian publisher, Wild Dingo Press in 2017. Katherine holds a Graduate Diploma in Therapeutic Arts Practice from the Melbourne Institute of Experiential and Creative Art Therapies (MIECAT). 

CV Highlights

2025 Burnt into Memory, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Group Exhibition, Windsor, New South Wales
2025 Forage II, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Group Exhibition, Katoomba, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2024 ArtSpeaksOut Program, COP29 UN Climate Change Conference, Baku, AZERBAIJAN 
2024 ArtSpeaksOut, Official Selection, IkonoTV, Berlin, GERMANY
2024 Collectors Show, Manyung Gallery, Group Exhibition, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
2024 Artisans in the Gardens, Royal Botanic Garden, Group Exhibition, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2024 Spring Fever Exhibition, Manyung Gallery, Group Exhibition, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
2023 National Capital Art Prize, Winner, Sustainability Category, Canberra, ACT, AUSTRALIA
2023 Where There's Still Life, Solo Exhibition, Manyung Gallery, Malvern, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
2023 Collabor8Women, Finalist, Ellipse Gallery, Woolloomooloo, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2023 Kinship with Birds in Flight and Plight, Finalist, Online Group Exhibition, Women Eco Artists Dialog, California, USA
2023 Mission to Seafarers Maritime Art Prize, Finalist, Docklands, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
2023 Reimagine Art Prize, People's Choice Award, Wallarobba Arts & Cultural Centre, Hornsby, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2023 Central Desert Digital Art Prize, Finalist, Raft Artspace, Mparntwe, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, AUSTRALIA
2023 Forage, Group Exhibition, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2023 WAMA Art Prize, Finalist, Ararat Gallery TAMA, Ararat, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
2023 Environmental Art & Design Award, Finalist, Manly Art Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2023 Open Field Arts Festival, Salon Group Exhibition, Berry, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2022 The Heat Is On, Winner, Burrinja Climate Change Biennale, Burrinja Cultural Centre, Upwey, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
2022 Art Speaks Out, Finalist, IKONO TV, COP27 United Nations Climate Conference, Sharm-el Sheik, EGYPT
2022 Meroogal Women's Art Prize, Finalist, Sydney Living Museums, Nowra, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2022 Tree, Urban Forest Project Group Exhibition, Group Exhibition, 45 Downstairs Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
2022 Environmental Art & Design Award, Finalist, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2022 Art for Climate Change, Online Group Exhibition,Planet Earth Channel, IKONO TV, Berlin, GERMANY
2022 ICONS Billboard Display, DigitalArt4Climate, Group Exhibition,Tokyo, JAPAN
2022 Mandorla Art Award, Finalist, Perth, Western Australia, AUSTRALIA
2022 Fire, Group Exhibition, Climarte Gallery, Richmond, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
2022 Planet Recovery Project Exhibition, Finalist, Labyrinth Gallery, UK
2022 Women See Change, Visual Petition, Parliament House, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, AUSTRALIA
2022 The Next, Online Group Exhibition, Li Tang Gallery, New York, USA
2022 Platforme Planet Earth, Online Group Exhibition, Finalist, New York, USA
2021 DigitalArt4Climate Art Competition, Finalist, COP26 United Nations Climate Conference, Glasgow, UK
2021 Environmental Art and Design Prize, Finalist, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2021 Waverley Art Prize, Finalist, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
2020 Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program, Output - Art After Fire Project, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade    
2009 Heysen Art Prize, Winner, Hahndorf Art Academy, Hahndorf, South Australia, AUSTRALIA
2000 Bega Valley Art Awards, Winner, Bega Valley Regional Gallery, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA