Katya
Dimova
Visual Artist · Researcher
Katya Dimova works across drawing, textile and artist’s books, exploring plants as carriers of memory, knowledge and cultural histories.
Oenothera biennisTextile book · 2026
1000 Fabric MarblesInstallation · 2022–2024
Linum usitatissimumTextile book · 2025
Happiness is real only when sharedInstallation · 2023–2025
Papaver somniferumTextile book · 2024
Daucus carotaTextile book · 2023- MADE IN VIENNA – but not about Vienna!6–30 October 2026 // Galerie Druck & Buch (Susanne Padberg), Vienna, AustriaInfo
- auf BLÄTTERN12 November – 19 December 2026 // Kunstwerk, Linzer Straße 16, St. Pölten, Austria
Works
Textile Books
Since 2017
I began working on my textile books in 2017, developing them from my studies of wild plants and research for my herbarium. What began as a way of observing and learning about plants gradually became a form of collecting and transmitting knowledge. The books bring together botanical studies, stories, folklore and personal observations.
I use thread as a drawing tool, allowing each image to develop through the slow and repetitive process of hand embroidery. The time invested in making becomes part of the work, reflecting the time and attention required to become familiar with a plant.
I work with natural textiles, increasingly using traditional handwoven farmers’ linen. I am drawn to its material qualities and to the traces of labour, skills and knowledge embedded within it, particularly the textile work traditionally carried out by women. The books have become a form of archive, carrying plant knowledge, stories and material memory into the present through drawing and handwork.
Oenothera biennisTextile book · 2026
Linum usitatissimumTextile book · 2025
Artemisia vulgarisTextile book · 2024
Papaver somniferumTextile book · 2024
Daucus carotaTextile book · 2023
Sambucus nigraTextile book · 2021
Solidago canadensisTextile book · 2021
Capsella bursa-pastorisTextile book · 2020
Urtica dioicaTextile book · 2019Textile Works & Installations
Some of my works move beyond the textile surface and into space, where textile becomes volume, structure and environment. I work with fabric, thread and repetitive hand processes to create objects and installations that carry traces of time, labour and touch.
Sewing, stitching, filling and assembling are integral to the work. Repetition becomes a meditative and accumulative process, allowing the time and labour of making to remain visible in the finished work.
Textile also connects these works to forms of knowledge and labour traditionally associated with women: making, repairing, caring and preserving. The installations are often modular and adapt to their surroundings, developing through scale, repetition, movement and the presence of the viewer.
Drawing
Drawing is both a way of looking and a way of thinking within Dimova’s practice. Plants, organic forms and observations from everyday life become starting points for drawings that move between precise observation and imagination.
Lines may remain on paper, or continue into textile through thread and stitch. Drawing thus becomes a process that can unfold across different materials and forms.
Embroidered drawing on handwoven linen · linen and cotton threads · approx. 26 × 31 cm
Embroidered drawing on handwoven linen · linen and cotton threads · approx. 26 × 31 cm
Embroidered drawing on handwoven linen · linen and cotton threads · approx. 26 × 31 cm
Embroidered drawing on handwoven linen · linen and cotton threads · approx. 26 × 31 cm
Embroidered drawing on handwoven linen · linen and cotton threads · approx. 26 × 31 cm
Embroidered drawing on handwoven linen · linen and cotton threads · approx. 26 × 31 cm
Oenothera biennis
Textile book · 2026
- Medium
- Handwoven farmers’ linen, hand embroidery with cotton and linen thread
- Dimensions
- Approx. 33 × 23 cm
- Pages
- 18 pages
- Collection
- Kunst- und Museumsbibliothek, Cologne, Germany
Linum usitatissimum
Textile book · 2025
- Medium
- Linen fabric, hand embroidery with cotton and linen threads
- Dimensions
- Approx. 32 × 23 cm
- Pages
- 18 pages
- Collection
- Tufts University Art Collection, Boston, USA
Artemisia vulgaris
Textile book · 2024
- Medium
- Handwoven farmers’ linen, hand embroidery with cotton, linen and wool threads
- Dimensions
- Approx. 33 × 22 cm
- Pages
- 18 pages
- Collection
- Tufts University Art Collection, Boston, USA
Papaver somniferum
Textile book · 2024
- Medium
- Handwoven farmers’ linen, hand embroidery with cotton and silk threads
- Dimensions
- Approx. 33 × 23 cm
- Pages
- 18 pages
Daucus carota
Textile book · 2023
- Medium
- Reclaimed cotton fabric, hand embroidery with cotton thread
- Dimensions
- Approx. 32 × 21 cm
- Pages
- 18 pages
- Collection
- Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria
- Photo
- © Rosina Pencheva for Bulgarian Fund for Women
Sambucus nigra
Textile book · 2021
- Medium
- Cotton and linen fabric, hand embroidery with cotton and linen thread, glass beads
- Dimensions
- Approx. 30 × 21 cm
- Pages
- 18 pages
- Collection
- Private Collection, San Francisco, USA
Solidago canadensis
Textile book · 2021
- Medium
- Cotton fabric, hand embroidery with cotton and linen threads, plant-dyed fabric
- Dimensions
- Approx. 32 × 23 cm
- Pages
- 18 pages
- Collection
- Klingspor Museum, Offenbach am Main, Germany
Capsella bursa-pastoris
Textile book · 2020
- Medium
- Cotton fabric, hand embroidery with cotton thread
- Dimensions
- Approx. 31 × 22 cm
- Pages
- 18 pages
- Collection
- Artothek des Bundes, 21er Haus, Vienna, Austria
- Photo
- © Aled Ordu
Urtica dioica
Textile book · 2019
- Medium
- Cotton fabric, hand embroidery with cotton thread
- Dimensions
- Approx. 30 × 20 cm
- Pages
- 20 pages
- Collection
- Artothek des Bundes, 21er Haus, Vienna, Austria
- Photo
- © Aled Ordu
1000 Fabric Marbles
Installation · 2022–2024
- Exhibited
- BUNA vol. 2: The Nature of Relationships, Forum for Contemporary Visual Art, Talyana, Varna, Bulgaria, 2024
langsam schön, with Georg Lebzelter, Kunstraumarcade, Mödling, Austria, 2023
Video / Performance, 2022 - Photo
- © Aled Ordu
Take Your Time
Installation · 2023
- Exhibited
- TAKE YOUR TIME, Gallery, WUK, Vienna, Austria, 2023
Research
Research is an integral part of my artistic practice. I study plants through drawing, reading, observation and hands-on experimentation, exploring not only their botanical characteristics but also the knowledge, stories and cultural meanings that surround them. I am particularly interested in how plants were understood and used by older generations, and how this knowledge has been preserved, transformed or lost over time.
My research often extends into practical experiments: I test traditional uses, materials and applications of a plant in order to encounter it through different senses and forms of knowledge. Drawing allows me to observe closely, while reading, collecting stories and experimenting help me understand the plant within a broader cultural and social context. These processes become the foundation for my textile works, drawings and books, where research is translated into a personal visual language.
About
Katya Dimova is a visual artist based in Vienna and Lower Austria. Her research-based practice moves across drawing, textile, artist’s books and installation, with a particular focus on plants, memory and traditional forms of knowledge.
She studied Graphic and Printmaking at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and at Joshibi University of Art and Design in Tokyo. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the 59th Venice Biennale, Künstlerhaus Vienna, Landesgalerie Niederösterreich and the National Gallery Sofia. Her textile books and other works are held in collections including the Austrian National Library, Tufts University Permanent Art Collection, Klingspor Museum Offenbach, the Public University Library of Basel, the Federal Artothek, the Art and Museum Library Cologne and private collections.
Artist statement
Drawing is at the core of my artistic practice. I work with thread as I would with a pencil or brush, selecting fibres, weights and textures according to the quality of line I want to create. Some threads behave like soft pencils, others like hard, precise ones. Through this process, drawing moves from paper into textile space.
My work explores relationships between plants, memory, material and human knowledge. Plants are not only subjects of observation, but carriers of stories, cultural practices and forms of knowledge that have been passed down, transformed and sometimes forgotten.
My process begins with observation and research. Botanical studies, folklore, historical sources, personal memories and material experiments become part of an evolving archive. From these investigations, I develop textile books, drawings, objects and installations.
I often work with handmade and historically used linen, materials that carry traces of labour, care and time. The history of textile production, and the largely invisible work of women who grew, spun, wove and worked these materials, forms an important layer of my practice.
I am interested in how drawing, material and repetition can hold memory, and how traditional forms of knowledge can be reinterpreted through contemporary artistic practice.
Selected exhibitions
- 59th Venice Biennale, Venice
- Landesgalerie Niederösterreich
- Künstlerhaus Wien
- National Gallery Sofia
- Fiction Museum Okutama, Tokyo
Selected collections
- Austrian National Library, Vienna
- Tufts University Permanent Art Collection, Boston
- Klingspor Museum, Offenbach
- San Francisco Center for the Book
- Federal Artothek, Vienna
Selected publications
- FLOWER POWER – Eine Kulturgeschichte der Pflanzen
Gerda Ridler, Martin Pfosser · Müry Salzmann Verlag / Landesgalerie Niederösterreich, 2025 - Kunstraumarcade 1974–2024
Kunstverein Galerie Arcade, 2024 - Needles in a Haystack
Bulgarian Fund for Women / National Gallery, Sofia · Simolini 94 Publishing House, 2023 - HUMAN_NATURE
Künstlerhaus Vereinigung / Verlag für moderne Kunst (VFMK), 2023
Workshops
Alongside my artistic practice, I lead workshops for different groups and age levels in educational, cultural and artistic contexts.
I bring elements of my own artistic processes into these workshops, inviting participants to explore plants, drawing, textiles, embroidery, natural colours and traditional knowledge through hands-on experimentation.
My workshops create a space for observation, exchange and creative exploration, offering participants a different perspective on materials, nature and artistic practice.
I have worked with institutions including Tangente – Festival für Gegenwartskultur St. Pölten, Künstlerhaus Wien, Pädagogische Hochschule Wien and the City Gallery Varna, among others.
- New dates coming soonFor workshop requests from schools, institutions and groups, please get in touch.Contact
Contact
- Emailinfo [at] katyadimova [dot] com
- Instagram@dimova.katya
- StudioOtto Wagner Areal, former Direktionspavillon
Staircase 2, 2nd floor, left · Vienna, Austria - GalleryGalerie Druck & Buch, Vienna
- CVDownload PDF
Imprint
Information pursuant to § 5 of the Austrian E-Commerce Act (ECG) and disclosure pursuant to § 25 of the Austrian Media Act (MedienG)
Media owner and publisher
Katya Dimova
Visual artist
Otto Wagner Areal, Direktionspavillon, Stiege 2, 2. Stock
Baumgartner Höhe 1
1140 Vienna, Austria
Email: info [at] katyadimova [dot] com
Business purpose
Visual art, art education and workshops
Editorial policy
Presentation of the artistic work of Katya Dimova and information about exhibitions, projects and workshops.
Copyright
All content on this website – texts, images and works – is protected by copyright. Any use, reproduction or distribution without express written permission is not permitted.
Works: © Katya Dimova
Photos: Michel Nahabedian (portrait), Aled Ordu, Rosina Pencheva for Bulgarian Fund for Women, Verena Mayrhofer; unless otherwise stated: Katya Dimova
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This website contains links to external websites. The respective operators are solely responsible for their content. No unlawful content was apparent at the time of linking; should any legal violations become known, the links concerned will be removed immediately.
Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 2026
1. Controller
Katya Dimova
Otto Wagner Areal, Direktionspavillon, Stiege 2, 2. Stock
Baumgartner Höhe 1
1140 Vienna, Austria
Email: info [at] katyadimova [dot] com
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