Katrin Spranger seeks to expose the tension between consumption, waste, and ecological awareness. In doing so she engages with materials that reference human exploitation of nature. Katrin Spranger is a multi-disciplinary artist working across sculpture, performance, sculptural painting, and jewellery. Her practice responds to environmental crises, addressing themes of plastic pollution, crude oil spills, water scarcity, and the impact of her own production methods.

Humans’ passive role in environmental destruction

Katrin Spranger’s past work has involved turning crude oil into jewellery that melts on the body and 3D-printing honey into ephemeral, edible sculptures. A recurring theme in her practice is humans’ passive role in environmental destruction and their reluctance to accept responsibility.

Waste plastic in her sculptures becomes a contemporary artefact—a symbol of excessive consumerism and disposability.

Stills from the 1.8 performance (above). It prompts viewers to reflect on our daily oil consumption and its environmental impact. The performer, embodying a feathered sculpture carrying 1.8 litres of oil, transitions into a dance. This performance symbolizes humanity’s struggle and failure to control environmental destruction. As the dancer moves across the floor, leaving marks on the paper underneath, this backdrop is subsequently transformed into action paintings, capturing the journey from grace to desperation, ending tragically.

Humanity’s disconnection from nature

In her evolving series of large-scale sculptural paintings, Katrin Spranger collects and repurposes plastic waste to construct body sculptures. These hybrid works integrate taxidermy and animal parts—skulls, bones, feathers, human hair, and fur—to create hybrid creatures that reflect on humanity’s intellectual and emotional disconnection from nature. Within performances, these sculptures serve as both narrative devices and tools for mark-making on canvas. After the performance, the canvases—now imprinted with traces of movement and material transformation—become lasting records of environmental commentary. https://www.katrinspranger.com/

Expanding a performative and collaborative approach

To create metal sculptures, Katrin utilises copper electroforming, a plating process on organic materials, but the toxic byproducts of this method let her critically reassess this technique. In the Groundwork residency 2024 she has begun exploring these byproducts, such as copper sulphate and dried sulphuric acid as raw materials for new paintings and sculptures. Katrin aims to expand her performative and collaborative approach therefore would benefit very much from becoming part of the Groundwork Network.

Jewellery school

As part of her practice, Katrin Spranger is a passionate educator. In 2016, she co-founded the K2 Academy of Contemporary Jewellery in London, where she teaches art and design qualifications. It is a place for teaching practice from beginners to advanced, but also for experiment . Taught by a range of expert contemporary practitioners, students can be really challenged to explore new appraches to what jewellery can be.