Katy Papineau

Biography

Katy Papineau (b.1991) is a figurative painter based in London. She completed The Drawing Year in 2019, and presented her debut solo exhibition A Poison Tree at Blue Shop Gallery in July 2023.

Papineau’s practice encompasses drawing, painting and printmaking. Colour is an essential vehicle through which she conveys emotion and atmosphere, working instinctively in thin layers of paint and pigment. Her process involves a wealth of references from everyday life, film, literature, and art history.

Her current focus is on the ambiguity human connection. She draws in public spaces, seeking out intriguing moments that occur between the people she observes. While drawing she takes notes on her experiences beyond the visual: temperature, scents, snippets of conversation she overhears. In the studio she layers the information collected in her drawings with personal symbols to create ambiguous narrative paintings that capture her internal world.