Cat Poljski

Cat Poljski is a Melbourne-based Australian artist and printmaker whose work explores the built environment — the way cities are constructed, layered and reimagined through print. Combining images of buildings from cities she has lived in and visited, including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich, she creates imagined urban landscapes that move between the real and the constructed.

Poljski holds a Diploma of Fine Arts (Printmaking) from Phillip Institute (RMIT) and a Master of Fine Arts from Monash University. Her practice has been shaped by international residencies, including a Red Gate Studio residency in Beijing (2008), two PointB Studio residencies in Brooklyn, New York (2011–12, 2013–14), and a residency at the Australian Tapestry Workshop (2016).

Exhibitions

Her solo exhibitions include Reflecting Spaces (2024) and Hidden Spaces (2023) at Tacit Art, Sub-Divide (Tacit Galleries, 2020), Obstructing Views (Collingwood, 2018), Masking the City (Dear Patti Smith Gallery, 2013) and Imagined Cities (Jenny Port Gallery, 2011). Notable group exhibitions include the Guanlan International Print Biennial in Shenzhen, China (2009), de.con.struct at Matteawan Gallery in Beacon, New York (2015), the Swan Hill Print Prize, and The Alliance — a collaborative body of work with fellow artist Louise Blyton, shown at Neospace (2018) and Queenscliff Gallery (2023).

Commissions and writing

Poljski has also undertaken major print commissions, including a series for engineering firm Irwinconsult, and has collaborated with master printer Peter Lancaster of Lancaster Press. Her work has been reviewed by Robert Nelson and Dan Rule in The Age, and art critic Dr Christopher Heathcote wrote the catalogue essay for her 2011 exhibition Imagined Cities. She was awarded the Dame Joan Sutherland Grant by the American Australian Association in 2008.

Cat lives and works in Melbourne.

See Cat Poljski’s works for sale · Cat Poljski’s website

Shop

Cat Poljski, High Density, 2023

$2,300.00

Etching, aquatint and relief on Somerset paper

76cm x 56cm

Unique state

Framed

Translucent towers crowd and overlap in tones of peach, pink and pale green, capturing the compressed layers of the high-density city. A unique state print. Melbourne-based printmaker Cat Poljski explores built environments drawn from cities including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich.

Cat Poljski, Shinkansen to Hiroshima, 2019

$1,900.00

Etching, aquatint and relief on Somerset paper

76cm x 56cm (paper)

44cm x 56cm (image)

Unique state

Framed

A horizontal band of dark buildings and landscape passes beneath a pale sky, like a view glimpsed from the window of the bullet train. A unique state print. Melbourne-based printmaker Cat Poljski explores built environments drawn from cities including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich.

Cat Poljski, Transparent Curtain Wall, 2023

$2,300.00

Etching, aquatint and relief on Somerset paper

76cm x 56cm

Unique state

Framed

Printed from four different copper plates, each etched, aquatinted and relief printed. Named after the glass outer skin of modern buildings, the work layers pale green translucent panels to capture how light passes through the city. Melbourne-based printmaker Cat Poljski explores built environments drawn from cities including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich.

Cat Poljski, Araeosystyle 3, 2023

$2,300.00

Mixed media (etching, aquatint and relief), finished in oil on linen

76cm x 56cm

Unique state

Unframed

Named after the architectural term for a colonnade of paired, widely spaced columns, Araeosystyle 3 sets pale translucent columns against a deep black ground. A unique state work. Melbourne-based printmaker Cat Poljski explores built environments drawn from cities including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich.

Cat Poljski, Exposing Spaces Beneath, 2023

$2,300.00

Etching, aquatint and relief on Somerset paper

88cm x 66cm

Unique state

Framed

Pale, ghostly building forms rise from a dark ground warmed by a glow of orange and pink, suggesting the structures and spaces hidden beneath the city’s surface. A unique state print, framed in timber. Melbourne-based printmaker Cat Poljski explores built environments drawn from cities including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich.

Cat Poljski, In Between, 2023

$2,300.00

Etching, aquatint and relief on Somerset paper

76cm x 56cm

Unique state

Framed

Dark architectural columns are cut through by a band of warm pink and peach light, catching the spaces in between buildings. A unique state print – no other impression is identical. Melbourne-based printmaker Cat Poljski explores built environments drawn from cities including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich.

Cat Poljski, Reflective Surfaces, 2024

$2,300.00

Mixed media (etching, aquatint and relief), finished in oil on linen

56cm x 51cm

Unframed

Overlapping translucent panels reflect and refract one another beneath a pink-tinged sky, as if seen through layers of glass. Melbourne-based printmaker Cat Poljski explores built environments drawn from cities including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich.

Cat Poljski, Modular Tower, 2013

$980.00

Screen print on black Somerset paper

76cm x 56cm

Limited edition

Framed

Electric-blue lines construct an imagined tower block against black Somerset paper – an abstract cityscape where dynamic lines meet minimalist elegance. This is how we morph together images from our lives to invent and designate layers of memory and fact, where the imagined and real are combined to create a more appealing reality. Melbourne-based printmaker Cat Poljski explores built environments drawn from cities including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich.

Cat Poljski, Glass Façade, 2024

$2,800.00

Mixed media (etching, aquatint and relief), finished in oil on linen

56cm x 51cm

Unframed

Translucent vertical planes of pale green and white are layered over a dark ground, evoking light moving across the glass façades of the contemporary city. Melbourne-based printmaker Cat Poljski explores built environments drawn from cities including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich.

Cat Poljski

Exhibitions

Commissions and writing

Orten Contemporary