ABOUT
Silke Raetze is a Sydney-based artist whose diverse and evolving practice spans painting, drawing, and mixed media. A graduate of the National Art School with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, she was awarded a prestigious residency at Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon the following year, marking the beginning of a dynamic career in the Australian contemporary art scene.
Raetze has exhibited widely in solo and curated exhibitions across Australia. In 2009, she undertook a transformative painting and weaving residency in Peppimenarti, a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, where she worked alongside renowned artists such as Regina Wilson and Patsy Marfura. This experience deeply influenced her artistic approach, expanding her engagement with texture, materiality, and storytelling.
In 2010, Raetze explored her passion for natural history as an Artist in Residence at the Australian Museum, contributing to the museum’s Birds of Paradise exhibition. Her work has since been recognized in numerous prestigious art prizes, including the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, the Gosford Art Prize, the Waverley Art Prize, the Duke Art Prize, the Hazelhurst Works on Paper Award, the Swan Hill Drawing Award, and the John Olsen Prize for Drawing.
She has also been featured in significant curated exhibitions such as Southerly Buster at Hazelhurst Gallery (curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham), Slipstitch at Tweed Regional Gallery (curated by Dr. Belinda von Mengersen), Hands-On: Craft in Contemporary Art (curated by Cash Brown), Private Assembly at Tweed Regional Gallery (curated by Susi Muddiman), and Out of the Darkness at Gallerysmith in Melbourne.
Her works are held in regional collections, including Swan Hill Gallery, Warrnambool Art Gallery, and Ararat Gallery in Victoria. Though formally trained in painting, Raetze’s practice now incorporates a broad range of mediums and techniques, reflecting her ongoing exploration of form, texture, and narrative within contemporary art.