About
Assoc. Prof. Katarzyna Hils, PhD
Academic teacher, visual artist, and graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice.
In 2013, she defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. Since 2022, she has been an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Educational Sciences at the University of Silesia in Katowice.
Her professional practice integrates academic research with artistic activity and is driven by a commitment to fostering creativity, critical reflection, and environmental awareness in the visual arts. Situated within the field of artistic research, her work explores the relationships between memory, place, materiality, and ecological processes.
An important strand of her practice concerns the memory of place and the historical and visual traces embedded in landscapes shaped by both individual and collective experience. Her doctoral project, developed through digital printmaking, investigated the image as a stratified record of perception and remembrance, examining how artistic practice can contribute to broader discussions within memory studies. More recently, her research has expanded towards questions of difficult heritage and the role of contemporary art in engaging with sites marked by complex and often traumatic histories.
Working with natural dyes and pigments derived from local plant species, she examines the material properties of plant-based colour and their relationship to ecological systems. A significant aspect of this work concerns the mutability of artworks over time, approached through the philosophical framework of transience and through the concept of participation in an evolving artistic process. Through these material investigations, she reflects on the interconnectedness of human and non-human agencies, proposing ecological sensitivity as both an artistic methodology and an ethical position.
In recent years, she has participated in numerous international artistic residencies and exhibitions, contributing to cross-cultural exchange in contemporary art. These experiences support her academic and artistic work by introducing global perspectives into discussions on visual culture, artistic research, environmental humanities, and material approaches to memory. She is particularly interested in interdisciplinary collaborations involving artists, researchers, museums, archives, and cultural institutions that seek to explore the intersections of contemporary art, ecology, memory studies, and difficult heritage.
Selected conferences and artistic residencies
International Mokuhanga Conference, Echizen, Japan, 2024
Taohuatan Artist Residency, Anhui, China, 2019
Montemero Eco Art Residency, Almería, Spain, 2019
European Perspectives in Teaching Education, Graz, Austria
Camille Claudel III, ITAE, Venice, Italy
Mass Media Communication and Reality, Smolenice, Slovakia
International Mokuhanga Conference, Tokyo, Japan, 2014
Artist Residency, International Printmaking Base, Guanlan, China, 2013
Selected exhibitions and awards
International Mokuhanga Conference Exhibition, Echizen, Japan, 2024
Masa krytyczna (Critical Mass), painting exhibition, Oblatów 4 Art Space, Katowice, 2023
46th National Art Biennale “Winter Salon”, Poland – nomination for the award for the work Landszaft 2, 2021
Quadro Art: 7th International Painting Biennale, Łódź, Poland – award for the painting Landszaft 5, 2021
46th National Art Biennale “Winter Salon”, Poland, 2021
Quadro Art: 7th International Painting Biennale, Łódź, Poland, 2021
Taohuatan 5th International Artist Residency Exhibition, Kurume Gallery, Hefei, China, 2019
Contemporary Painting Exhibition Bielska Jesień, BWA Bielsko-Biała, Poland, 2018
International Graphic Art Exhibition, Istanbul
International Print Biennial, Guanlan, China
International Print Triennial IMPRINT, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and the Tadeusz Kulisiewicz Foundation
International Print Awards – Carmen Arozena, Madrid, Spain, 2012
International Graphic Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, 2014
International Art Exhibition, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
International Art Exhibition, Centro Cultural Arquitectura, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, México