Nexus - NYCxDesign Festival 2026 Jury
Julia Katolla
She is a mixed media artist raised in Costa Rica and based in Bonn, Germany. Her work combines drawing, painting, montage, and hand embroidery to create intricate, anatomically inspired studies of inner states. Situated between scientific illustration and psychedelic vision, it explores themes such as motherhood beyond idealisation, systemic aggression, and the human impulse to impose order on chaos.
She received artistic training in ceramics, photography, and painting at the University of Bonn, followed by fine art studies at the Arte Fact Academy. Early experience in illustration in Germany, alongside organising art projects and pursuing independent photographic work in Mexico, informed her interdisciplinary mixed media practice.
Katolla’s work has been featured in international publications, including Suboart Magazine, Al-Tiba9, and The Four Faced Liar, and exhibited in Bonn, Berlin, and London, including at the London Art Biennale, where she received the International Confederation of Art Critics Award. Her first solo exhibition, Phantomschmerz (Phantom Pain), opened in 2023 as part of the annual gallery and museum night in Bielefeld, Germany.
@juliakatollaart