Feminine strength and beauty lie at the core of Catheine Amakar’s practice. For her, the body is a pure source of divinity. Abstract image of the female body serves as a tool for her to address and explore varied historically dogmatic attitudes towards women. Religious context is prevalent in her line of enquiry and she draws on elements of traditional iconography in her painting. It is through shape and visual imagery that she borrows from a classical religious context – she creates an illusion of spiritual space where female strength finds power.

Though her work is predominantly figurative, Amakars introduces materials within her painting that bring abstraction. She incorporates materials that stereotypically might allude to the feminine or masculine, such as rope. She disrupts the original structure of the material to reveal a parallel story line. Whilst it is important that these added elements become active components in the work, there is also a sense of ambiguity she intends them to lean in to.

Amakars is drawn to beauty and the theatrical and through highly painterly texturized surfaces combined with additional materials, she intends to achieve boldness in her work. Decorative symbolism reoccurs time and time again through certain shapes. She wishes the viewer to decide upon their meaning themselves and keep metaphorical mystery present in her work.

Although the work is rooted in feminism and she celebrates womankind, Amakars is careful not to subvert masculinity but the toxicity it can often allude to. In her practice she aspires to create work that strongholds gender equality and authentic self.