Katia Santibanez

Informed by her background in microbiology, artist Katia Santibañez explores themes of repetition and variation in nature. This passion led her to address the subjects of chaos in politics, climate change, and psychology, all of which reflect ecological as well as societal turmoil. Santibañez’s studio  is a laboratory for experimentation in painting, drawing, and printmaking, a practice she adopted in 2003.

In addition to her own work, Katia has collaborated with her husband James Siena on two sets of woodcuts with Mae Shore of Cheymore Gallery. Mae describes their visual collaboration as a fascinating process, like a game of chess. As Katia and James traded the blocks between printings, they navigated their cutting based on the other’s prior cutting. Move by move the images were created, alternating between Katia’s and James’s hands. Each layer is recognizable to their particular style but comes together in the most harmonic way.

More recently Katia has collaborated with Michael Ballou on some unique pieces of bisqued fired stoneware, made by Michale and painted by Katia. Michael has shown extensively across the United States and internationally. He has been the recipient of awards including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pollock-Krasner and  Adolf Gottlieb Foundations.

Katia lives and works in the both NYC and the Berkshires.