Katrin Koenning is a visual artist from Bochum-Langendreer (in the German Ruhrgebiet). Her work travels across still and moving images and text, at times including found materials, painting and collage. Pursuing intimacy and interconnection her work centres around practice as relational encounter. Most stories evolve through years and use returning as a way of drawing closer. Merging in and out of each other, different series often intersect. In her extended image-dialogues, Katrin uses fragments and slippages to suggest narrative spaces, communities and lived experiences that are allied, fluid and multiplicit. Many of her series render non-human human entanglement and intimate kin, positing imaginaries with a greater-than-human world.
Koenning has been the recipient of multiple awards, such as the Bowness Photography Prize. Her work is regularly exhibited in Australian and international solo and group exhibitions including presentations at Ishara Art Foundation Dubai, Chobi Mela, Paris Photo, Hamburg Triennial of Photography, Museum of Australian Photography, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Australian Centre for Photography and the National Gallery of Victoria (2023). Koenning’s images have been published in The New Yorker, Vogue.com, Zeit Magazine, The Guardian, New York Times, Esquire Italy, Der Spiegel, Yucca Magazine, California Sunday and many other places. Her work is held in numerous institutional and private collections both in Australia and abroad; most recently her large-scale installation while the mountains had feet [2020 — 2022] was acquired in whole by the National Gallery of Victoria.
Katrin regularly teaches workshops in photographic practice and thinking, working closely with many institutions and festivals locally and across the Asia-Pacific region such as Angkor Photo Festival (Siem Reap Cambodia), Photo Kathmandu (Kathmandu, Nepal), The Lighthouse (Calcutta, West Bengal), Myanmar Deitta (Yangon, Myanmar), Australian Centre for Photography, Perth Centre for Photography, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Museum of Australian Photography, Palmtree Workshops (Santorini Greece, forthcoming), and others.
Katrin lives and works in Naarm (Melbourne) on unceded Boon Wurrung Woi Wurrung Country.
2019
the kids are in trouble, Reading Room
The Crossing, Myanmar Deitta
Swell, Monash Gallery of Art
Melbourne, AUS
Yangon, MYA
Melbourne, AUS
2018
The Crossing, Le Cloître ouvert, DI MEZZO
New Works Commission for Lowlight Festival,
SALT Contemporary
The Crossing, Hamburg Triennial of Photography
Paris, FRA
Queenscliff, AUS
Hamburg, GER
2017
Astres Noirs, Paris Photo / East Wing Gallery
Indefinitely, Organ Vida Festival, Galerija Kranjčar
Dear Chris, Chobi Mela Festival
Paris, FRA
Zagreb, CRO
Dhaka, BAN
2016
Indefinitely, Daylight Project Space
Indefinitely, The Lost Ones Gallery
Hillsborough, USA
Ballarat, AUS
2015
Indefinitely, Wallflower Photomedia Gallery
Fieber, PhotoIreland
Indefinitely, Athens Photo Festival
Indefinitely, Photobook Melbourne, James Makin Gallery
Mildura, AUS
Dublin, IRE
Athens, GRE
Melbourne, AUS
2014
Dear Chris, Wallflower Photomedia Gallery
Dear Chris, Queensland Centre for Photography
Mildura, AUS
Brisbane, AUS
2013
Loraine and the Illusion of Illoura, Colour Factory
Dear Chris, Edmund Pearce Gallery
Melbourne, AUS
Melbourne, AUS
2012
Near, Brisbane Powerhouse
Loraine and the Illusion of Illoura, Forward Thinking Museum
From a Changed North, HeadOn Photo Festival, MiCK Gallery
Brisbane, AUS
Virtual / USA
Sydney, AUS
2010
Thirteen:Twenty Lacuna, Front Room Gallery/Troika Editions
London, GBR
2007
April, Flipbook Media
Polaroid Transfers, Queensland Centre for Photography
Brisbane, AUS
Brisbane, AUS
2023
Melbourne Now, Slippery Pictures, National Gallery of Victoria
Of Embers, Maroondah City Council
Melbourne, AUS
Melbourne, AUS
2022
Like Yesterday, Redcliffe Art Gallery
Maps of Disquiet, Chennai Photo Festival
Return to Nature, Monash Gallery of Art
Collection Focus: Up to Us, Rockhampton Museum of Art
Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Award, HOTA
Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre
Persona, QCA Galleries
Centre for Contemporary Photography Fundraiser
Animalis, Perth Centre for Photography
Redcliffe, AUS
Chennai, IND
Melbourne, AUS
Rockhampton, AUS
Gold Coast, QLD
Muswellbrook, AUS
Brisbane, AUS
Melbourne, AUS
Perth, AUS
2021
Static in the Air curated by Sohrab Hura, Ishara Art Foundation
Growing Like A Tree curated by Sohrab Hura, Ishara Art Foundation
Photobooks - Art Page by Page, Grassi Museum of Applied Arts
Échappées belles, Saint Gilles
Clouded, A Few Isolated Showers, Castlemaine Art Museum
Her Beauty And Her Terror, Caboolture Regional Gallery
Bowness Prize Celebrates 15 Years, Smith & Singer
Pott + Indefinitely, Influences Festival
Dubai, UAE
Dubai, UAE
Leipzig, GER
Brussels, BEL
Castlemaine, AUS
Caboolture, AUS
Melbourne, AUS
Angers, FRA
2020
Swell, Breda Photo Festival
Informality Gallery at Stone House
From All Points of the Southern Sky, Southeast Museum of Photography
what’s outside the window, ReadingRoom Online
Breda, NED
London, GBR
Daytona, USA
Virtual / AUS
2019
Undercurrents, Transformer Station
The Portrait, Home Gallery
Noorderlicht 30 Years, Martini Plaza
Peckham24
The Crossing, Bienal Fotografio do Porto,
Portugese Centre of Photography
Restless Acts as part of Jack's Reloaded, Jack's Magazine
The Crossing, Re-thinking environment, DL Gallery
Successions + Collisions, Zephyr Mannheim
Cleveland, USA
Sydney, AUS
Groningen, NED
London, GBR
Porto, POR
Melbourne, AUS
Athens, GRE
Mannheim, GER
2018
Entity of Spatial Existence, SIPF, Gillman Barracks
Idiot Pack Noise, Brightspace Gallery
Indefinitely, Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie
We Feed the World Project, Bargehouse Gallery
Look Up At The Sky, Sala Muncunill
Singapore, SIN
St. Kilda, AUS
Darmstadt, GER
London, GBR
Terrassa, ESP
2017
The Real and Other Places, CCP & Photo Shanghai
Turtles all the way down, Collisions, Channels Festival
An Unorthodox Flow of Images, CCP
The Crossing, Franque
Pott, f2 Fotofestival, Kuenstlerhaus
The Crossing, FORMAT Festival
Golden Record, Fotogalleriet
Aperture Photobook Awards
Shanghai, CHN
Melbourne, AUS
Melbourne, AUS
Melbourne, AUS
Dortmund, GER
Derby, GBR
Oslo, NOR
ESP, SUI, GER,
RUS, SWE
2016
30th Anniversary, Centre for Contemporary Photography
Geografies (Look up at the Sky), EspaiDos
Das Licht der Nacht, Kommunale Gallerie
International Young Photographers, Daegu Photo Biennale
Indefinitely, BELONGING, Obscura Photo Festival
The Crossing, ARENA, Noorderlicht Festival, Museum Bellevedere
The Crossing, CCP Declares: On the Social Contract, CCP
The Crossing, Transfer, Australian Centre for Photography
Dear Chris, The Leftovers, Verge Gallery
Documentum, Poem 88 Gallery
Victorian Women Working in Photography, Gaffa
Melbourne, AUS
Terrassa, ESP
Berlin, GER
Daegu, KOR
Penang, MAL
Groningen, NED
Melbourne, AUS
Sydney, AUS
Sydney, AUS
Atlanta, USA
Sydney, AUS
2015
Terra Australis, Galerie Pavlova
Pulse, Nooderlicht Festival
Moreton Bay Regional Council Art Collection, Caboolture Regional Art Gallery
Transduction #18, Pause Festival, ACMI
Berlin, GER
Groningen, NED
Caboolture, AUS
Melbourne, AUS
2014
15 Artists, Redcliffe City Art Gallery
This Is Not Detroit, Musisches Zentrum
Genesis, HeadOn Photo Festival, M Contemporary Gallery
Formality, Trocadero ARI
Redcliffe, AUS
Bochum, GER
Sydney, AUS
Melbourne, AUS
2012
Loraine and the Illusion of Illoura, New York Photo Festival
Hijacked III: AUS/UK, Photofusion Gallery
____on this site, Wallflower Photomedia Gallery
Thirteen:Twenty Lacuna, Edmund Pearce Gallery
Thirteen:Twenty Lacuna, Carbon Black Gallery
Near, Hijacked III: AUS/UK, QUAD Gallery
New York, USA
London, GBR
Mildura, AUS
Melbourne, AUS
Melbourne, AUS
Derby, GBR
2011
Thirteen:Twenty Lacuna, Noorderlicht Festival
Thirteen:Twenty Lacuna at FORMAT Festival
Thirteen:Twenty Lacuna, Nofound Photo Fair
Near, Delhi International Photography Festival
Thirteen:Twenty Lacuna, Museum of Architecture
Groningen, NED
Derby, GBR
Paris, FRA
Delhi, IND
Talinn, EST
2008
Ten Days in August, Museum of Brisbane
Daryl Hewson Collection, QUT Art Gallery & Queensland State Library
Brisbane, AUS
Brisbane, AUS
National Gallery of Victoria, HOTA Gold Coast, Maroondah City Council Galleries, Art Bank, Monash Gallery of Art Collection, Rockhampton Museum of Art, Moreton Bay Regional Council Art Galleries Collection, Queensland Centre for Photography Collection, Museum of Brisbane, Daryl Hewson Collection, Numerous private collections in India; Germany; France, Austria, The United Kingdom, Switzerland, USA, Italy, Australia + The Netherlands.
2022
Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award
Acquisition
2019
Bowness Photography Prize
Winner
2017
Australian Photobook Of The Year
Winner
2016
CPH Award
Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation, First Photobook Award
Winner
Finalist
2015
Daylight Photo Award
Winner
2014
Moreton Bay Region Art Award
Bowness Photography Prize
Merit Prize
People's Choice
2012
JGS Award, Forward Thinking Museum
Winner
2011
Australia's Top Emerging Documentary Photographer
Winner
2010
Troika Editions Format Exposure Prize
Winner
2007
APJ Award for Outstanding Documentary
Winner
American Suburb X, National Geographic, PhotoEye, Photographers' Sketchbooks, Momento Pro Magazine, Aint-Bad Magazine, Self Publish Be Happy, Landscape Stories, Try Hard Magazine, GUP Magazine, New York Times, Der Spiegel Magazine, The Guardian, NYPH Journal, SBS Australia, Bloomberg Businessweek, Firecracker, Hijacked III: AUS/UK, Unless You Will, Marie Claire Magazine, Lost At E Minor, Excerpt Magazine, Vignette Magazine, Time Machine, Capture Magazine, Vrij Nederland, BBC Viewfinder, Capture Magazine, UK Photomonth, DeepSleep Magazine, Eleanor Magazine, Designmontage, Ozphotoreview, UK Telegraph, Redroom, AchGut, UK Observer, Human Rights Defender, Amnesty International Australia, Multimedia Muse, Australian Photography Magazine, Magnum Blurb Books, ARD Kultur Report, Lightjourneys, Metaphor Images, Adelaide Post, Lenscratch and others.
