Cat Poljski

 

My work explores the constructed world in an attempt to move between the real and the imagined. The individual works are spatial experiments, reconstructed, referenced and cross-referenced to provide abstracted viewpoints to question notions of place and time.

Images of buildings from Melbourne, Tokyo, New York, London, Paris are collated and hand- printed together from four different copper plates that have been etched, aquatinted and relief printed, overlaying each other to construct a dialogue between the constructed and imagined world. They are an attempt to locate sites where buildings can speak about our past, present and maybe our future. How we morph together images from our lives to invent and designate layers of memory and fact, upon which the imagined and real are combined to create a more appealing reality.

Amongst this grandeur of architecture are the skyscrapers. These have taken my attention; a blend of steel structures and modernist style buildings that are not as tall as say Manhattan or Melbourne, but their presence commands my attention. I am surrounded and indulged by this. My head is going crazy as I swivel and swerve in all directions to find yet another pocket of glory above me. The central station is like a Sol LeWitt structure, pure white and built of strong horizontals and verticals. This city is known as the international city of Peace and Justice, and I really get a sense of it. The streets seem safe and the atmosphere is gentle and serene.

Click here for artwork by Cat Poljski  

Exhibitions at Tacit Art

2024 Reflecting Spaces

 

The Crystal Palace, Madrid is adorned with expansive glass panels on an iron structure that is clover shaped and crowned by a dome. The ingenious use of cast iron columns and generous glass surfaces allows for a spacious and grand interior, which compliments the description as a glass cathedral. It mirrors a sense of duplicate spaces, transparent, inside out. 

 

2023 Hidden Spaces

 

Surfaces are layered and surrounded by transparent curtain veils, exposing spaces beneath where the canvas and paper have been passed through the press several times using traditional printmaking processes from copper plates. Painted surfaces connect the translucent shadows that reveal the threshold between the buildings, while the street is blurred as new structural designs peel away the bulky façade for an updated transparent scheme, an expression of the building’s internal vitality.

Exhibitions
solo

2024 Reflecting Spaces - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2023 Hidden Spaces - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2021 Sub-divide - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2019 Negative Construct - REY AREA, RMIT, Melbourne
2018 Obstructing Views - Melbourne
2015 The Architect Considers - Cox Architecture, Melbourne 
2014  It’s a Twin Thing - Neospace, Melbourne 
2013 Masking the City - Dear Patti Smith Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Imagined Cities - Form Studio and Gallery, Queanbeyan, ACT
2011 Open Studio Residency Exhibition - Point B, Brooklyn, New York
Imagined Cities - Jenny Port Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Tracing Space: a generic city of the imagination - Jenny Port Gallery, Melbourne
Tracing Space Stage 2 (Light, Space Modulator) - Upstairs@the Napier Hotel, Melbourne
Red Gate Studio Residency Exhibition - Bei Gao, Beijing 
2006 T.O.A.S.T. - Hudson Street Studios, New York
2005 Elaboration, persistence, mutation, decay: an investigation of urban architecture - Coppin Street Warehouse, Melbourne 
2003 Urban Encounters: fragments/shards - Red Gallery, Melbourne
2000 The NY, NY Experiment - Motor Works Gallery, Melbourne
1999 Roam - Motor Works Gallery, Melbourne
1998 Elements Of... - Motor Works Gallery, Melbourne

group

2025 Burnie Print Prize - Burnie Regional Gallery, Tasmania
Summer Salon - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2023 Artbox - Tacit Art, Melbourne
The Alliance II - Queenscliff Gallery (w/ Louise Blyton)
SUBSTRATE 23 - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2022 Editions Print Prize - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Swan Hill Print & Work on Paper Prize - Swan Hill Regional Gallery
NU28 Inaugural Opening Exhibition - Melbourne
Tacit Voices - Tacit Art, Melbourne
SuperImposed - No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne
2021 Peebles Print Prize - Queenscliff Gallery
2020 20[2020] - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2019 Pulse - Tacit Art, Melbourne
The Affordable Art Fair, Melbourne
The Museum of Platitudes & Aphorisms - C3 Contemporary, Melbourne
Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2018 The Alliance - Neospace, Melbourne (w/ Louise Blyton)
The Exquisite Palette - St Luke, Melbourne
2017 ATWAIR16 - Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne
Two Cities in Print - Portland Bay Press. Portland
Two Cities in Print - Warrnambool Art Gallery
2016 PROOF - Port Jackson Press, Melbourne
Resident - Motor Works Gallery, Melbourne
Documenting Silence - St Hellier Gallery, Melbourne
2015 Magical - Neospace, Melbourne
de.con.struct - Matteawan Gallery, New York
Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
18 x 8 From Point A to Point B and back again - Point B, Brooklyn, New York
2014 37°48’S Artists Navigate Melbourne - Sofitel, Melbourne
The Abject Museum of the Absurd - RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
2013 Monstrous Project - Neospace, Melbourne
Urban Art - Port Jackson Press, Melbourne
2012 Non-Objective to Present - Langford120, Melbourne 
2011 Smorgasboard - Jenny Port Gallery, Melbourne 
2010 Stone Love - Lancaster Press, Melbourne
The Exquisite Palette - St. Luke, Melbourne
52 Print Portfolio - Geelong Art Gallery
2009 Guanlan International Print Biennial - Shenzhen, China
2008 The Exquisite Palette - St. Luke, Melbourne
2007 Inaugural Group Exhibition - Jenny Port Gallery, Melbourne 
2005
Distant Noises - Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Sydney
Salon - Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Fremantle Print Award - Fremantle Arts Centre
The Hutchins Art Prize - Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart
Swan Hill Print & Work on Paper Prize - Swan Hill Regional Gallery
Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette - West Space, Melbourne
The Affordable Art Fair, Melbourne
2003
The Hutchins Art Prize - Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart
Distant Noises - RMIT Gallery, Melbourne 
Darebin Latrobe Acquisitive Prize - Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne
2002 Celebrating 21 Years of Printmaking - Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
Annual Group Exhibition
- Red Gallery, Melbourne
2001 The Hutchins Art Prize - Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart
1999 The CPM Print Acquisition Awards - Tweed River Regional Gallery

Collections

Cox Architects - Print Council of Australia - State Library of Victoria

Awards

2007/11 Master of Fine Arts - Monash University, Melbourne
1990 Diploma of Education - Hawthorn Institute of Technology, The University of Melbourne
1986/88 Diploma of Fine Arts (Printmaking) - Phillip Institute, RMIT, Melbourne

2025 Burnie Print Prize - Finalist
2022 Editions Print Prize - Finalist
Swan Hill Print & Work on Paper Prize - Finalist
2021 Peebles Print Prize - Finalist
2004 Fremantle Print Award - Finalist
The Hutchins Art Prize - Finalist
Swan Hill Print & Work on Paper Prize - Finalist
2003 The Hutchins Art Prize - Finalist 
Darebin Latrobe Acquisitive Prize - Finalist
2001 The Hutchins Art Prize - Finalist
1999 The CPM Print Acquisition Awards - Finalist