About Me

Katrina Okoronkwo | born 1985
Portrait artist working across many traditional handicraft & embellishment techiniques

Welcome to my world of beadwork, thick lashings of paint, ink, impasto, and portraiture. Inspired by ornament & embroidery, my figurative pieces boldly merge the contemporary with traditional artisinal techniques.

Created with meticulous, labour intensive methods, each piece aims to effortlessly and almost irreverently toss together the past and present... my goal is to create something I haven't seen before, conjuring feelings of escapism & freedom.

Born in Windsor & raised in central west NSW (Lithgow), I’m half Polish and my husband is Nigerian. This cultural mix has encouraged an adoration and constant exploration into various methods of ‘making’ … the creation of handicrafts & fascination with tactile embellishment. My Mum loved knitting and made all our clothes when we were young, I am grafeful to have learnt many of the techniques from her & to have her encourgement to pursue creative expresssion.

My husband is a 3D character artist and has no doubt influenced my perception of the dimensional qualities of art. I shifted from traditional portraiture to a highly ornate methodology that aims to honour crafts from history - integrating an element of artisan handiwork in my contemporary creations. Further influenced by Haute Couture (namely, Alexander McQueen, Dior, and Schiaparelli) I felt compelled to bring both worlds together and create a sort of haute couture style of portraiture.