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I am a queer Melbourne based visual artist working with textiles, sculpture, and assemblage. My art explores how materials can hold feelings, drawing on themes of the body, vulnerability, and care.
Using reclaimed clothing is both a practical and conceptual choice reflecting my interest in keeping materials out of landfill, whilst also engaging with the emotional, cultural and historical weight carried by everyday garments and fabrics. Through textile-based processes traditionally associated with domestic labour, my work explores ideas of value, repair, gender, and the agency embedded in the acts of making, unmaking and remaking. Care, repair, maintenance, collaboration over speed, waste, and constant newness. Slow hand stitching creates space for listening to both the body and the materials, with the materials ultimately guiding the process. I have exhibited widely alongside other artists, with shows at Melbourne galleries including Montsalvat, Kings Artist-Run, Sandbox Studios Box Gallery, Assembly Point, and the Australian Catholic University Gallery. I have also been featured in selected group exhibitions in both Melbourne and Sydney, as well as solo shows in Melbourne and regional NSW. I have been a finalist in several art prizes, including the 6th Biennial Petite Miniature Textile Exhibition at Wangaratta Gallery, The Manning Art Prize: Naked & Nude at Manning Regional Gallery, the Emerging Artist Craft Award with Craft NSW, Queer Art Prize Australia, and the Moreland Summer Show at Counihan Gallery. |
My studies include a Master of Fine Art from RMIT University, a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) from Monash University, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Humanities and Sociology (Women's Studies) from La Trobe University.
I have over 20 years’ experience working in Adult Community Education and I now maintain a full-time art practice. 
Karryn (Kaz) Photo by Esther Frieda
Studio wall
View from my home studio.
Photo by Esther Frieda
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Karryn inherits her love of textiles and craft-based skills from a family of makers whose influence continues to shape her practice. She learned craft skills from her mother Marion Waters, and her grandmothers, Eileen Argus and Mary Dalton
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Mary Dalton
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