Katia Santibañez occupies a singular place in contemporary printmaking – her work hovering at the precise boundary between scientific precision and lyrical abstraction. Associated with a “generation of pattern-obsessed New York artists,” her prints distill a lifelong fascination with the hidden structures underlying the natural world.
The prints begin, almost always, with the grid. She examines how objects of nature can be structured to magnify a canvas, with layers of sharp, kaleidoscopic patterns coming together to create hypnotic yet tranquil compositions. But this geometry is never cold. The grid is more of a scaffolding than a cage – a framework through which organic forms breathe, twist, and proliferate.
Her source material is drawn from close observation of the natural world. Leaves, twigs, branches, forests, ice, and snow all feed into her practice, rendered through unique systems that function simultaneously as meditations on nature and personal interpretations of landscape. The imagery has shifted over time – from branches to pine cones, those shapes eventually evolving into spirals, which she has developed into a sustained body of prints.
Technically, Santibañez commands a range of printmaking methods, from linoleum cut reduction to multi-plate etching using spit bite and line etch. Her palette is typically restrained, which only amplifies the graphic intensity of each image.
There is a real sense of intimacy when viewing her prints – each one approached like its own personal interaction rather than one in a series of many, giving the work an emotional directness that belies its formal discipline.
