Katey Smoker explores the physicality of paint, expanding its possibilities as both a medium and a subject. While it’s not unusual for a painting to exist unframed and away from the canvas or wall, there remains this persistent ‘knowing’ of what a painting is that seems unshakable.  Yet, when those conventions are stripped away, what remains is the essence of paint itself: its physicality, textures, and layers that go beyond the surface of the canvas or any traditional support. Smoker’s approach is about uncovering these inherent qualities and its capacity to stand on its own. Whether the resulting artworks are objects, sculptures, or paintings is left open, but the paint itself emerges as elusive, responsive, and unpredictable. It is limitless.

“For me, paint is not just a material, it is a living, shifting thing. It is never still. It flows, cracks, stretches, and settles in ways that are both unpredictable and revealing. In my work I seek this movement, allowing the paint to shape itself as much as I shape it.”

Smoker holds a Bachelor of Contemporary Art and a Bachelor of Metallurgical Engineering from the University of South Australia. Her final year body of work, A Delicate Balance between Intention and Intuition, was selected for Hatched, the 2024 National Graduate Exhibition, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA). She was also selected as a 2024 ACE Studio resident in partnership with Helpmann Academy and a recipient of the Major Exhibition Prize at the 2024 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition, supported by Linden New Art and IAS Fine Art Logistics. She was a recipient of the UniSA Creative Graduate Exhibition Prize (2023), the John Christie Wright Memorial Prize for Painting (2023), the Friends of the South Australian School of Art Inc Prize (2020) and the Chancellor’s Letters of Commendation (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023).

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2025     Linden New Art (upcoming), St Kilda, VIC. Supported by Helpmann Academy, IAS Fine Art Logistics & Linden New Art (dates TBC)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     2024     Hatched: National Graduate Exhibition, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), WA                        
2024     ACE Studios: 2024, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, Adelaide, SA                
2024     Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition, SASA Gallery, Adelaide, SA
2023     Coalesce – UniSA Contemporary Art Graduate Show, University of South Australia, Adelaide
2023     Out of the Box – SASA Gallery, Adelaide, SA
2022     Off The Grid, Adelaide City Libraries, South Australian Living Artists festival (SALA), North Adelaide, SA
2022     Fashion – make a statement, Gallery 1855, Tea Tree Gully, SA
2021      May: revisions, interventions, extensions – SASA Gallery, Adelaide, SA
2021      Remade, Gallery 1855, Tea Tree Gully, SA