Information

Katya Vaz was born in 1999 in Moscow, Russia. She grew up and currently works in New Orleans. Her practice centers around the transformation of physical locales by one’s emotional connection to them depicted by reminiscent imagery, as if looking into someone’s memories.

Having been raised between Moscow, Russia, and New Orleans, Louisiana—two distinct cultures and languages—I have been acutely aware of the concept of locality from a young age. Drawing inspiration from memories tied to place, I explore the emotional and physical connection to culture and the environment that cultivated it, and how they have, in turn, shaped me.

Culture and locality are intricately linked, as the environment in which one is raised profoundly influences cultural identity and expression. Locality encompasses the physical, social, and historical contexts that shape daily life and collective memory. These local contexts imbue cultural practices with distinct meanings and forms, making them unique to specific places. The two become reflexive of each other, allowing characteristics such as landscapes, climate, and traditions to inform an individual’s experience. By exploring this relationship, my work delves into how the tangible aspects of a place contribute to the development of personal identity.

My work mainly consists of works on paper. By combining graphite and charcoal drawings with papermaking, cyanotype, and printmaking techniques, I represent the linguistic aspect of my work, using different techniques as various phrases to express the idea. These phrases come together to form a complete concept. Much like in the natural world, where nothing exists in isolation, my works inform and build on each other, creating their own dialogue.

The processes I employ are rooted in natural principles with many having the ability to be proliferated, much like the natural world’s cycles and patterns. Papermaking, for instance, mimics the organic process of growth and transformation, while cyanotype’s use of sunlight evokes the natural interplay of light and time. By employing these methods, I not only reflect the iterative and interconnected nature of the environment but also create works that can be replicated and expanded. This multiplicity mirrors the way natural and cultural systems evolve and interact, reinforcing the idea that nothing exists in isolation but rather as part of a dynamic and interconnected whole.

Prominent Work and Exhibits

Her thesis work relates the 2021 Navalny protests in Russia through the lens of Samizdat, or self-publishing. In a 5 part series of books, made in editions of 20 each, Vaz works with translation, the relaying of events and protest language, the book design and binding of a series of bilingual books, screen printing, risograph printing, and linoleum block printing in an attempt to relay the corruption of the current Russian government as well as the opinion of Russian citizens to an English-speaking audience, while advocating for the effectiveness of print media as dissident media in light of prevalent digital censorship. This body of work was exhibited in Diboll Gallery in 2021.

Vaz received her Bachelor of Design from Loyola University New Orleans in 2021. She has exhibited work at Good Children Gallery (2024), The Historic BK House & Gardens (2023), The Front Gallery (2021), Diboll Gallery (2021), 5Press Gallery (2017), and the Contemporary Art Center (2017). In 2024, she was selected as an Artist in Residence at the Joan Mitchell Center.