Katrina Koppa is a woodworker, illustrator, and art educator based in Madison, Wisconsin. Her work is centered around storytelling, play, and curiosity, and places her own experiences in an idyllic, whimsical world. Interested in both making and teaching, Katrina works as a teaching assistant for Little Picassos, a visual arts program focused on bringing art education to low income families in Madison. She also works as the art editor for the Madison Journal of Literary Criticism, a student-run magazine composed of student art and writing centered around political, social, and cultural issues.
Katrina’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions at UW-Madison including Something I’ve Seen Before, Chit Chat and Wood Chips, and WUD Art’s 96th and 97th Annual Student Art Shows, as well as in the Santa Reparata International School of Art’s main gallery in Florence, Italy. She was recently selected to participate in a group exhibition at the Overture Galleries in Madison that will run from November 2026 through February 2027. Her work has also been selected for publication in Reed Magazine’s Issue 158 and has earned her scholarships from Peter’s Valley School of Craft and Penland School of Craft. In the spring of 2025, Katrina will receive her BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She intends to take one to two years off, throughout which she will continue building her portfolio and honing her skills, before attending graduate school to pursue her MFA.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am most interested in storytelling, in play, and in visceral feelings of joy, whimsy, and human connection. Creating brings about these feelings in myself; returns me to a state of childlike curiosity; and through interacting with my work I hope that my audience experiences the same. I want to bring light and gentleness into our lives. My work is an insight into an idyllic world that reflects the things that make my life feel like a gift. These things are wide ranging— flashbulb memories, materials, techniques, aesthetic elements, artistic movements.
I find myself drawn to intricate patterns, natural wood and fibers, medieval art, fine lines, and the delight of simple machines. All of these things can be traced back to my younger self—illustrations from my favorite books, lego houses, whittled twigs, fairy gardens, an early, eager interest in hammers and nails, hours drawing at the kitchen table. I lost sight of these things for numerous years of my life, but through rediscovering them, I’ve also rediscovered my most authentic self. Through making, through sharing and through teaching, I hope to give others the same opportunity to remember these deep-rooted emotional ties.
