Katie Bradley has worked in Darwin for 20 years as teacher and artist, setting up a private studio at her home. Katie has maintained her practice for 30 years, exhibiting in local exhibitions, having solo and group shows. Originally, she studied at the University of South Australia, starting in a Bachelor of Design, (Jewellery and Metalsmithing) and swapping to a Bachelor of Visual Art which she completed in 1987. Spending 1988 travelling through China and England, coming back to Australia overland from London to Nepal, Katie moved to Tasmania where at the University of Tasmania she completed a Master of Visual Arts (Research, 1991) and then a Diploma of Education (1992).
Teaching has also been an important part of her practice, and for the last 28 years she has taught at University, TAFE, within the Tasmanian Education system and for the last 20 years within the Independent and Catholic schools of Darwin with a focus on Indigenous Education. In 1997 Katie was chosen by the school she was working at Canberra Boys Grammar to travel down to Antarctica for a month on the Mawson Hut expedition.
In 2016 Katie spent the year doing an Artist in the Park residency at the Territory Wildlife Park alongside 7 other local artists. This residency gave the opportunity to research the extraordinary age, abundance and diversity of the flora and fauna in the top end, an ongoing interest of hers. If you were going to use a word to sum up Northern Territory then it would be Ancientness. Katie’s work has been heavily influenced by the ongoing discussions and insights she has gleamed while working alongside so many remote indigenous students. She is genuinely surprised that more value and respect is not given to this diverse, complicated, rich and knowledgeable group of people that are the original custodians of this land. This is a theme that has been underlying Katie’s work for last 20 years. Over the last 230years, Australians have contributed much to this land we now know as Australia but we have also benefited greatly. Isn’t it time to acknowledge the previous 40,000 plus years? Katie’s has work held in several private collections.
Previous Works
Australia long before it had that name
NCCA Darwin 2016
Barossa Regional Gallery 2019
Out of Darkness
Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts & Culture Centre 2020
Tactile Arts 21 May - 6 June 2021
Raw
Katherine Bradley is a Member of Rapid Creek Artist Collective, a Residency at the local NT Wildlife Park in 2016 changed the balance, and teaching is now part-time. Since then, Residencies have been done at Tactile Art in Darwin, The Tank, Cairns and at Witchelina.
Future Works
2021 Katie is doing a residency as a printmaker at Tactile Arts, Darwin, NT.
