Katherine Gailer is a Colombian artist – currently based in Melbourne, Australia. She studied for a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT University and was the winner of the 2011 Tolarno Hotel Annual Award and the 2009 NMIT Printmaking Award. She recently completed an Arts Management Masters degree.

Her colorful, visionary oil paintings and drawings explore the complexities and promise inherent in the search for spiritual and cultural identity. Originally from Colombia and currently working in Australia, Gailer draws on her diverse background to combine elements of sacred geometry, mythology, animals, and the spiritual realm, and pave the way for the development of a new archetypal imagery, steeped in primal feelings and strongly rooted in the connection that exists between humans and nature.

Color plays a pivotal role in Gailer’s work and is a driving compositional element. For her, color becomes a conduit for energy and a true bridge between the soul of the artist and that of the viewer. Compositionally, elements of balance and tension are juxtaposed throughout the work, underscoring a main theme that looks at the complex relationships between fragility and strength, vulnerability and empowerment – elements which in some ways come to define both the male and female experience.

To Gailer, to recognize the spiritual significance of the self at every level is to acknowledge that the physical world is a reflection of our souls. Overall, her artwork is concerned with the spiritual transformation of ordinary people. She believes that a rediscovery of the sacred and the secrets of our ancient past are essential – that through this, the human awareness of spirit will grow and society will evolve away from materialism to embody a more integrated, mystical, and balanced realm. Her sensibility has always been drawn to the poetic, enigmatic and exotic. The representation of women is one of her core inspirations: the investigation of the female body as a symbol of sexuality, motherhood, beauty and ambiguity.

Overall her practice incorporates drawing, painting and printmaking.

María Peña is a visual artist graduated from the Art school “Academia Superior de Artes” in Bogotá, Colombia (her country of origin). Since this time Maria has dedicated her life to painting, specifically to the technique of oil painting on canvas. From 2004 to 2007 the artist developed her postgraduate studies by research in RMIT University School of Art in Melbourne. As a result of this investigation Maria presented a solo show of four installations in the Art Gallery of the school on February 2007. These series of works entitled “Bodies in Transit” depicted identities in transit, immigration and borders, focusing in the Latin-American Diaspora. Following the topic mentioned above, the artist is currently dedicated to her studio work on oil painting and fabrics usage, as well as media art installation, with the intention to evoke through her artwork “Spaces for the Memory”, remembrances and oblivions of a lost home.