Kate Steenhauer

Originally from the Netherlands, Kate Steenhauer’s diverse career path has taken her from competitive tennis in her youth, to a PhD in Coastal Engineering at the University of Aberdeen, to visual art.

Through National Theatre of Scotland, she developed an interdisciplinary approach involving live drawing in Japanese ink unfolding on a screen through a projector and interacting with a narrative on a live stage. These performances hold elements of risk, are real and fresh for audience and artists, and transformable into audio-visual installations and Japanese ink drawings on rice-paper.

Multiple interdisciplinary collaborations have put this into practice:

Opera Holland Park, where she collaborated with Conductor Matthew Waldren during a Puccini production, earning her the 2017 Aberdeen Visual Artist Award.

The Shelter combines live drawing with a multi-voiced verbatim performance by Shane Strachan. Initially developed on the streets of Aberdeen, the work was supported by National Theatre of Scotland and Aberdeen Performing Arts, performed at the Lemon Tree in 2018 and commissioned for Aberdeen Festival of Light and Haddo House Arts Festival, where it won an installation prize.

Hedda is a live stage performance in...

Awards:
2019 Just Start here, National Theatre of Scotland, with Shane Strachan and Ross Whyte directed by Stuart Laing.
• 2018 Haddo House Installation Arts Prize, Aberdeen Artists’ Society, with Shane Strachan
• 2018 Creative Scotland, Open Project Funding, with Dancer/Choreographer Imogene Newland and sound artist Suk-Jun Kim
• 2018 Aberdeen Performing Arts, Freshly Squeezed Productions, in collaboration with Creative Writer Shane Strachan
• 2017 CityMoves Dancy Agency Residency Programme with Dancer/ Choreographer Imogene Newland
• 2017 Aberdeen City VISUAL ARTISTS' Award
• 2017 National Theatre of Scotland, One Day to Play
• 2016 Visiting Guest Artist Full Fellowship, Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice, Italy
• 2015 Meffan Museum and Gallery, The Colin Dakers Memorial Purchase Prize
• 2014 Royal Scottish Academy Latimer Award
• 2012 Aberdeenshire VISUAL ARTISTS' Award
• Multiple works held in permanent public collections of Aberdeen Maritime Museum and Angus Council

Training:
2000-2009: Photography and drawing, Netherlands and the UK.

2009 - 2011: Apprenticeship in drawing and painting under instruction of George Collier, AtelierCollier, Aberdeen, UK.

2010 - 2011: Apprenticeship in printmaking...

Live Stage Drawing and Audio-Visual Installations:
• 2019 The Shelter, Just Start Here Festival, Anatomy Rooms Aberdeen, Shane Strachan and Ross Whyte
• 2019 The Shelter (Cinema Screening), Sound Thought, CCA Glasgow, Shane Strachan and Ross Whyte
• 2018 Just a Bairn, Aberdeen Artists’ Society, Haddo House and Country Park
• 2018 Hedda, Creative Scotland and CityMoves Dance Agency, Aberdeen University May Festival
• 2018 The Shelter (Full Show), Aberdeen Performing Arts, The Lemon Tree
• 2018 The Shelter (Scene 1), SPECTRA, Aberdeen Festival of Light
• 2017 The Shelter (Scene 1), One Day to Play National Theatre of Scotland, The Lemon Tree

Solo Exhibitions
• 2019 Duff House, Historic Environment Scotland and National Galleries of Scotland, Banff, UK
• 2017 Scotland: Darg and Drams, Meffan Museum and Art Gallery, Forfar, UK
• 2017 Whisky Galore – the Water of Life, Gallery at 55, Stonehaven, UK
• 2016 Scotland: Darg and Drams, Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice, Italy
• 2016 Aberdeen Airport in collaboration with Heinzel Gallery, Aberdeen, UK
• 2015 When the boat comes in, His Majesty’s Theatre’s Dress Circle Bar, Grampian Hospital Arts Trust, Aberdeen, UK

Group Shows
• 2018 Aberdeen Artists’ Society, Ha...