Co.Lab Gallery presents

KATIE KRAMER

PIECES OF PLACES I’VE BEEN BEFORE

OPENING FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28TH, 2025, 7 PM.

EXHIBITION CONTINUES UNTIL MARCH 16TH 2025.

In ‘Pieces of Places I’ve Been Before’, artist Katie Kramer draws on the undeniable power that nature holds and its ability to evoke calm, peace, and a sense of home.

Kramer notes how gardens are ‘curated collections of global flora’, chosen without consideration of their relationships to each other or their new environments. However, even in their curated forms, nature has a significant impact on our physical and mental well-being. Consider the impacts on air quality, mental clarity, stress, and sensory appeals, including scent and touch. Kramer’s work reflects on our magnetism to natural elements and their ability to shape our sense of identity and belonging.

“Nature influences us deeply as humans, shaping our emotions and connections to places and memories. We continuously make assumptions about what is "natural", yet our reproductions of the natural are inevitably contrived. The difference between a tree cultivated on a tree farm and one that thrives in an old-growth forest is profound.”

Kramer is captivated by the intersection of human oversight & nature’s tenacity. Additionally, these curated natural spaces and moments resonate with emotional connections to memories and experiences. “My practice requires an immersion in my surroundings, as I gather information through photographs, collected objects, and personal experiences. The works act as a document of the relationship I have formed with these surroundings but also question and reflect on our broader environmental interactions and the definition of what we consider "natural." ”

Katie Kramer holds an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts from Lakehead University, an MFA in Art and Ecology with Burren College of Art/University of Galway, Ireland. She is a Contract lecturer in the Visual Arts Department at Lakehead University and a freelance graphic designer.

All donations for the duration of the show will be donated to the DEK Foundation.

DEK is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to improving the lives of people in our community battling with addiction and advocating for increased resources to deal with the ongoing addiction crisis in Thunder Bay.

Sponsored in part by: Carrel + Partners LLP