About

Katherine Masters (b. 1979 London, United Kingdom) lives and works in Lisbon and is a graduate of Goldsmiths University (Bachelor of Arts in Design) and Central Saint Martins (Postgraduate Certificate in Photography).

She also later studied Colour Theory in Practice at The Slade School of Fine Art and completed a Contemporary Art course at the Royal College of Art.

Before becoming an artist Katherine forged a successful career in publishing, working for publishing houses such as Condé Nast, Fairchild Publications, The National Magazine Company and Cedar Communications. This was an experience that would later inform her artistic practice.

Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions; these include The Storyteller and the Sea, at the Farol Museu de Santa Marta and Museu do Mar, Lisbon (2011). In connection with this exhibition Katherine published a book on heroes of the sea. In the same year she collaborated with the NGO SOS Salvem o Surf (2011) on coastal sustainability projects. Other solo exhibitions include Sea in my Coffee, at Fundação Lapa do Lobo, Viseu (2024). More recently Katherine has exhibited as part of the collective ‘Art for Social Change’ in Sink or Swim at The Projection Room in the United Kingdom. 

Group exhibitions include: Aid Contra Prose, shown in both Gallery 2902, Singapore (2004) and Oxo Tower, London (2003); Exhibition of Artworks in support of the Ukraine, Galeria de Arte Estoril, Lisbon (2022) and more recently I’ll Be Here When You’re Gone, at The Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow, Scotland (2023).  She has also participated in several exhibitions with Arte na Freguesia at Galeria de Arte Cascais (2023/2024) and ‘Far and Wide’ at Galeria de Arte Estoril, Lisbon (2024). Katherine is a member of the National Society of Fine Art in Lisbon.

Katherine’s work focuses primarily on the natural world and the human condition; her practice is currently centred on themes related to the Portuguese coastline, coastal sustainability and her own bodily experience. Concept dictates medium and she is presently working in watercolour, coffee, oil pastel, acrylic and photography.  Her process is rooted in the exploration of colour, applied through her hands and body rather than traditional tools.

Collections

Museu do Mar Rei D. Carlos (King D. Carlos Sea Museum)