Katja Davar is a British-German artist and educator whose work spans a variety of mediums, the core of which is drawing.
Her work alternates between the universal and the intimate, her drawings are invented and processed worlds. Her approach stems from an interest in geology, economics, diagrams and notation systems and she looks at the archaic in order to understand the technological progress of today, within our shared world. Her research frequently explores cultural histories, tracing the human imprint in relation to the natural world. She is particularly intrigued by representations of nature across time and cultures, with recurring motifs that include rocks, meteorites, flora, and fauna. Katja Davar references literature and poetry in her multi-layered work which often appears in the form of hybrid landscape, somewhere between an interior territory and a self-constructed, phantasmal universe.
Her current projects include a long-term work focused on global avian migratory routes, particularly the nine major flyways that span the planet. This series will culminate in a major public artwork at Vienna’s Pilgramgasse U-Bahn station, scheduled for realization in 2029–2030. Another ongoing project investigates the concept of the Cloud—as both a metaphor and a digital architecture—that now envelops the Earth in a vast, computational canopy.
Katja Davar has exhibited extensively internationally at a wide range of institutions and galleries. Her works are included in many public and private collections.
Teaching activities
Certain themes persist in her teaching: the potential of mark-making, language systems and vernacular styles and how we process and interpret visual information, all of which are connected to drawing as a discipline. Research interests often develop from working closely with students in drawing and print projects, one example being the relationships that humans and non -humans have with their environments.
Most recently this has been related to energy extraction and transmission. Publications developed with students and guests include; Electroscapes (2018) Verlag der Hochschule Mainz, Printing Matters, Aktuelle Graphik im Spiegel von Dürer, Cranach und van Ruisdael (2014) Galerie der Stadt Backnang.
Selected Publications
- 2020 Monograph; Katja Davar, Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl / Kunstverein Heilbronn, Snoeck Verlag
- 2018 Monograph; Possible Gardens, Kornhausgalerie Weingarten
- 2015 Monograph; Shapes of Cascading Hierarchy, Kunstverein Leverkusen Schloss Morsbroich e.V.
- Monograph; Dazzling Debt, Galerie der Stadt Backnang & Galerie Kadel Willborn, Revolver Publishing, Berlin
- 2014 Clarke, Simon, Print, Fashion, Interiors, Art, Laurence King Publishing
- 2013 Monograph; Crystal Networks Crystal Trees, Revolver Publishing
- 2012 Monograph; Macfarlane, Kate & Southworth, Kate in: Scattered Plots & Routes We Take, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall, UK Farzanefar, Amin in: La Zona, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK)
- 2011 Voorhoeve, Jutta in: Welten Schaffen, Zeichnen und Schreiben als Verfahren der Konstruktion, Wissen im Entwurf IV, Diaphanes Verlag, Zurich
- 2010 Wege, Astrid: Grammatik der Zeichen in: Neues Rheinland. Die postironische Generation, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Distanz Verlag Nachtigäller, Roland in: Pittoresk Neue Perspektiven auf das Landschaftsbild, MARTa Herford Museum
- 2009 Weigel Viola in: Unter Wasser / Über Wasser -Vom Aquarium zum Videobild, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Kerber Seidel, Claudia in: Blitzen Bang, Daimler Art Collection, Hatje Cantz
- 2007 Monograph; Katja Davar - Forking Ocean Path, The Drawing Room, London, UK