Part of a series of posts by Neil Cownie on Featuring Artists
Perth artist, Anna Kotai’s work spans drawing, stitching, printing and fashion design, in fact, all things textile. Across these mediums seems to be a common thread of fluid forms in positive and void space. Her textile work can contain screen prints over-stitched to create additional depth and varying texture across the work.
A past exhibition of her fashion pieces displayed jackets with fluid void space consistent with her printed work.
While Anna’s work definitely ‘steers its own course’, I can’t help but see some influence from earlier artists such as Henri Matisse and Burle Marx.
The work of French artist Henri Matisse was inspired by nature in his use of flattened forms in a bold simplification of form with a colourful decorative pattern. The paper cut-outs and collages in his later years with their simplified line and form into abstraction really do seem to me to have been an inspiration to the work of Anna Kotai.
The Brazilian, Burle Marx, embraced modernism in the 1930’s, predominantly through landscaping but also as an artist, textile designer and sculptor. Using abstraction, he did away with symmetry to embrace the more fluid lines of the native vegetation.
Through many of Marx’ works the shapes and forms of nature can be seen weaving overlaid patterns. This is evident in the boardwalk paving at Copacabanca, Rio De Janeiro, the Mineral roof garden in Sao Paulo, the garden of Edmundo Cavanellas residence in Petropolis and the mosaic tile panel in his own house in Rio De Janeiro. Again, there seems to be some distant connection here with Anna’s work.
Here are a few examples of Anna Kotai’s works with fabric.
Go back to the Featuring Artists series.
