CANADIAN ARTIST
KATIE WILDE
FINE ART | ILLUSTRATION | CRAFT | DESIGN
From rich oil paintings, to accurate drawings to whimsical illustration, aesthetic design, and unique leathercraft, my art is about nature, people, and place.
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Browse my portfolio to see the things I'm personally obsessed with, as well as the art I really enjoy making for others: beautiful birds, strange plants, surreal spaces, special people, expressive animals, aesthetic objects and much more.
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View and purchase fine art, illustration, portraits, craft, leather, and fabric design.
Contact me for commissions, questions, or collaborations.
BIO & ARTIST STATEMENT
THE ARTIST
Katie Wilde is a Southern Alberta-based visual artist with an affinity for nature, oddness and interactivity. ​Her work has been installed in a variety of contexts, including galleries, a biochemistry lab, a crosswalk, and the surface of a public square. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Ottawa, and has exhibited in galleries and public spaces in Ontario and Alberta.
THE ART
Working primarily in oil, Wilde's paintings are populated with plants, birds, and near-familiar creatures in imagined natural settings, frozen under glass, or proliferating among forgotten architecture. In two of her latest bodies of work (Ward and Wing, and Glass Barriers) she ponders curiosity and obsession, collection and kidnapping, protection and privacy, knowledge and misunderstanding, and what it means to try to grasp nature outside of a natural seItting. In another project, Nobody’s Home, a neighbourhood in transformation is a vessel for shifting feelings about time, impermanence, and knowing one’s place in the world and on the land.
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Her sculptures work with natural phenomena such as magnetism, convection, and animal behaviour, featuring natural objects and occasionally live creatures.
In a street art setting, she injects an extra dose of humour and play, in the belief that that art has the power to transform communities and alter people's experience of their environment in a positive way. Art in unexpected places is one of her greatest joys.
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EDUCATION
2013 Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts - University of Ottawa
AWARDS
​2014 Shirley Dilworth Jaychuk Painting Competition - Third Place
2013 University of Ottawa Sculpture Award - for (Non)Interference Patterns
PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS / INTERVENTIONS
2023 Screaming Beaks - Traffic Control Box - City of North Bay Public Art
2016 Look Out! Hedgehogs & Balloons - Traffic calming crosswalk art, commissioned by City of Waterloo
2016 Temporary installation of interactive painted works in Waterloo Public Square, Waterloo
May - Bee vs. Hummingbird pollinator scavenger hunt
June - Choose Your Own Adventure with Jefferson the Salamander (featuring local endangered sps)
July - Hopscotch Races, featuring a giraffe on rollerblades
August - Snakes and Ladders, featuring Ontario snakes
2015 to 2016 10 Carden Chalkboards, Guelph ON
2013 Sandy Hill Mural, Goulburn Ave, Ottawa ON
2011 Snyder the Spider, recycled materials sculpture, Winterlude - Ottawa ON
EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions
2019 I Made This - 10C Main Floor Gallery, Guelph ON
2018 Seldom Heard - one-night immersive installation, 10C soundproof room, Guelph ON
2014 Seed and Spore (featuring an experiment in bitcoin Tipping4Artists) - 10 Carden, Guelph ON
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Group Exhibitions
2020 40th Annual Auction - Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, Grande Prairie AB
2020 Overzealous - Art Space Connect Gallery, Toronto ON
2019 Fleurish - eBar, Guelph ON
2017 Overzealous - Studio 404, Guelph ON
2016 Hoopla - Necessary Arts Company, Guelph ON
2016 Overzealous - 10 Carden, Victoria Park Golf Course, Kloepfer Gallery, Guelph ON
2015 Hoopla - Necessary Arts Company, Guelph ON
2015 WAS Auction - Silence, Guelph ON
2014 Eden Mills Arts Festival - Eden Mills ON
2014 Shirley Dilworth Jaychuk Painting Competition - Elora Centre for the Arts, Elora ON
2013 Surfacing - Studio Sixty Six, Ottawa ON
2013 INTERPLAY: Music and Steven Whiffen ft. Katie Wilde - Gallery 101 Ottawa ON
2013 MOMENTUM - 100 Laurier, Ottawa ON
2013 Auction Fundraiser for BFA Grad exhibition - SAW Gallery Ottawa ON
2013 Tract, Gallery 206, Ottawa ON
2012 Catalyst: The Art Science Experiment, University of Ottawa Biochemistry Lab Ottawa ON
​2012 Grand Opening, Paradigm[e] Gallery, Ottawa ON
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL & VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
2022 Guest Judge and Speaker - Overzealous, Missisauga, ON
2020-2023 Volunteer Caller - Keep in Touch Program - Volunteer Lethbridge, Lethbridge AB
2019 Instructor - Guelph School of Art, Guelph ON
2018 Guest Juror, Overzealous, Toronto ON
2018 Instructor - Button Factory Arts, Guelph ON
2018 Instructor - Wellington County Museum and Archives, Wellington County ON
2018 Instructor - Guelph School of Art, Guelph ON
2018 Manager of Programs and Operations - Guelph Arts Council, Guelph ON
2017 Culture Program Coordinator - City of Waterloo, Guelph ON
2016 Manager of Programs and Operations - Guelph Arts Council, Guelph ON
2015 to 2018 Volunteer - Publicity Chair & Co-chair Governance committee, Guelph Concert Band, Guelph ON
2015 Assistant Instructor - Advanced Painting Studio (Private School), Guelph ON
2015 Office Manager, Membership Coordinator - Guelph Arts Council, Guelph ON
2015 Volunteer - Art Program Coordinator - 10 Carden / 10C, Guelph ON
2014 Office Manager - Guelph Arts Council, Guelph ON
2014 Volunteer - Host and Grant Writer - 10 Carden (Creating Space for Change)
2014 Volunteer - Grant Writing Committee - Out on the Shelf, Guelph ON
2013 Mentor - Michael J McGuire Mentorship Program, Ottawa ON
2013 Panelist and Guest Artist - Green Week Opening, Ottawa ON
2011 to 2012 Art Tutor - Ottawa ON
2011 Performing Usher - Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens White Wedding to the Snow - SAW Gallery, Ottawa ON
2006 Volunteer Art Instructor - Nipissing Alternative School, North Bay ON
MEMBERSHIPS & PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
CARFAC Alberta
Guelph Arts Council