Katrina Koppa is an artist and art educator based in Madison, Wisconsin. Lately she has been moving between wood + textile sculpture and ink + watercolor drawings. Her work is centered around storytelling, play, and curiosity, and places her own experiences in an idyllic world. Katrina received her BFA and certificate in Arts & Teaching from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the spring of 2025. Interested in both making and teaching, she has worked as a teaching assistant for Little Picassos and as an instructor for the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s Art Cart program. She is currently maintaining a studio practice at Roundhouse Studios in Madison while looking for opportunities outside of academia before likely returning to school to pursue her MFA.
Katrina has shown work in numerous exhibitions in Madison including Women’s Work 2025, organized by the Wisconsin Women’s Artist Fund, Moire: a BFA Capstone Exhibition at UW-Madison, and WUD Art’s 96th and 97th Annual Student Art Shows at UW-Madison. While studying in Florence, Italy June 2024, her work was exhibited in the Santa Reparata International School of Art gallery. She is currently preparing for future exhibitions: Creating Belonging, a mixed-media group show at the Arts + Literature Laboratory in Madison in June 2026, a group exhibition at the Overture Galleries in Madison in November 2026, and her first solo show at the Museum of Wisconsin Art at Saint John’s in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in January 2027. Katrina’s work has been published in Reed Magazine, Illumination Magazine, and the Madison Journal of Literary Criticism and has earned her scholarships from Peter’s Valley School of Craft, Penland School of Craft, and the Chairmaker’s Toolbox.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am most interested in storytelling, in play, and in visceral feelings of joy and human connection. Creating brings about these feelings in myself, and through interacting with my work I hope that my audience experiences the same. Through drawing and through sculpture, I place my own experiences and memories inside an intricately and more beautifully constructed world. I want to bring light and gentleness into our lives. My work is an insight into an idyllic space that reflects the things that make life feel like a gift.
Making art makes me feel human. Seeing my work come together helps me understand who I am and remember who I was. It allows me to play. Through making, through sharing and through teaching, I hope to give this experience to others.
