Katika Schultz

Katika Schultz is an experimental printmaker and artist working on Dharug and Guringai country, her work is centralised around visually correlating identity, memory, forgetting and the unconscious. Ranging from portraiture, figure and space to playful abstraction, Schultz’s work offers a reinterpretation of space, place and experience, and embraces elements of chance and chaos.

The mediums used in her work include collage, airbrush, etching, relief, drawing, monotype, stencilling and hand colouring of B+W photography.

Schultz completed a bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking in 2020 and is currently completing her masters in Drawing, at The National Art School graduating in November 2024.

A passionate educator of print mediums, Schultz runs regular workshops through Bankstown Arts Centre, Northern Beaches Council and throughout different schools, as well as working with professional artists to expand their practice into printmaking.

Tell us about your creative process, what drives your practice?

The ways in which I make work tends to ebb and flow, I rarely will do the same thing for long periods of time and find that my practice builds upon itself, so one project will inform the next. Change and progress are natural states for the evolution of my work. In printmaking, I like to push materials to their breaking point, finding their limits and strengths and how different outcomes could compliment one another. The layering, textural and image possibilities of hybrid printing is something that has always excited me.

I am an advocate for the unique print, and tend to push against the perfectionism and tidiness that printmakers can be known for. I admire such work in others, it just hasn’t ever sat right with my own person.

I am inspired by the complexity of humans and our relationships to one another and the natural environment. My creative brain rarely shuts off and I can be thinking about projects whilst doing the most mundane of tasks.

I find I function in a variation of speeds or gears;  a slowness while absorbing, building and researching ideas and experiences, to then feeling full, with an urge to say something visually. The middle gear is one of preparing materials which then leads to a purging; a mass surge of energy, with experimentation and play in the studio or on the press.

There is an innate humanness to your works. How do you select your subjects?

Thank you for that observation, I definitely have an empathetic personality and hope to create a connection with the people who view my work. My subject matter comes from a personal narrative; my mother came to Australia on a boat as a 10 pound pom from England as one of 5 young girls with their Scottish Mother, leaving the men behind. A strong matriarchal story was embedded into my psyche from a young age and knowing the story of each of these women has brought me a lot of strength over the years.

I source my figurative compositions from B+W old family photographs and strangers stories that ignite something in me. In his book, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Roland bathes speaks about someone’s ‘air’ being captured in a photograph, a rare but incredible feat that photography can  create a sense of who someone is at a soul level, encompassing so much in such a simple way. I chase these moments in photography, especially when memory fails me.

What is the role and significance of experimentation in your approach to printmaking?

During my time as a printmaking undergrad, I tried my best to learn the traditions and particulars of each print medium, I fell in love with the rhythm and comfort of how the body is put to work in most print processes. There is a kinetic satiation and kind of ritual in following the rules and processes. I soon realised though, that I was not as worried about chasing exact duplication and making editions and I tended to add to prints after they had dried, usually with another print technique or hand colouring with watercolour. At the time I didn’t think much about it, but now looking back, experimentation is a major player in my work. There is a somewhat sacrificial surrender to the press when putting work through it, elements of chance and the unknown are now crucial to making new work.

As an educator and facilitator, what are the most important things you have learnt?

As an educator, I have learnt to listen and hold space for my students, that some of the best outcomes come from inexperience and beginners learning to play. There is a fine line between being encouraging and pushing people into places they aren’t comfortable with. Each individual comes with their own wants, needs, capabilities and surprises.

Teaching plays an integral role in my own practice now, it keeps me fresh, playful and I love watching how information is translated.

Are there any female printmakers | artists that influence you?

Absolutely, I admire all my peers that do print here in Sydney, as well as my past teachers.

Female printmakers that come to mind are Australian printmaker Roslyn Kean and US printmaker Laura Crehuet Berman.

In the last year or two, I discovered Newcastle artist Michelle Gearin’s paintings, I admire her focus on optics, her neurodivergent perspective and experience of the world.

Finally, what exciting projects are you working on at the moment?

Currently I am growing a small human, and due very soon! Which feels incredibly surreal and is a massive honour. I am excited to continue my practice alongside motherhood. There is nothing to prepare me for this next stage, it will be a unique journey I’m sure but I feel so inspired by all the artist mothers out there. I do have a family friendly residency booked in for next year in Tasmania where my partner Joel and Bub can come with me and I am aiming to get to Printopia Print Festival in New Zealand in May.

I won a grant through the Northern Beaches Council in 2021 to buy a large press with the aim to have an open access press facility where printmakers can teach from and artists and the community can come and use. I had a lot of difficulty with studio spaces falling through and the pandemic’s impact, however, I will continue to help facilitate this into a functioning print studio in its current location at the beautiful Little Sun Studio in Mona Vale.