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Painting by Kate Bright, Purther Tree, 2018, oil on canvas, 160 x 190 cm
Purther Tree, Kate Bright, 2018, oil on canvas, 160 x 190 cm
Painting, Canal, acrylic and glitter
Canal, Kate Bright, 2003, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 60 X 84 cm
Painting by Kate Bright: Christchurch, 2004, acrylic and resin on canvas, 48 x 48 cm
Christchurch, Kate Bright, 2004, acrylic and resin on canvas, 48 x 48 cm
Painting by Kate Bright, Heavy, 2012, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 72 x 66 cm
Heavy, Kate Bright, 2012, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 72 x 66 cm
Painting by Kate Bright, Fall, 2004, acrylic and resin on canvas, 72 x 72 cm
Fall, Kate Bright, 2004, acrylic and resin on canvas, 72 x 72 cm
Painting by Kate Bright, tangled, 2011, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 65 x 72 cm
Tangled, Kate Bright, 2011, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 65 x 72 cm
Painting by Kate Bright, Spinney, 2008, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 60 x 84 cm
Spinney, Kate Bright, 2008, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 60 x 84 cm

48" x 48"

Painting by Kate Bright, Ridge, 2001, acrylic and glitter on canvas
Ridge, Kate Bright, 2001, acrylic and glitter on canvas
Painting by Kate Bright, Villa, 2012, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 72 x 72 cm
Villa, Kate Bright, 2012, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 72 x 72 cm

Slade School of Fine Art
University College London
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT


Biography

Included in the British Art Show 1990 my paintings have been exhibited widely in both the UK and internationally.

Selected exhibitions:
Dumbpop, Jerwood Gallery, London/Metropolitan University Gallery, Leeds, UK
Another Country: The Constructed Landscape, Lawrence Rubin Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, USA
Taro Nasu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Exploration of the Environment-Landscape Redefined, Barbara Gillman Gallery, Miami USA
Shimmering Substance, Cornerhouse, Manchester, and Arnolfini Gallery Bristol
Getting away from it all, Emily Tsingou Gallery, London, UK
Backwater, Laing Art Gallery and Museum, Newcastle, UK
Kate Bright, Casa Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Spain
Bright, New Art Gallery, Walsall
Vitamin Art, Turin, Italy

Represented by Locks Gallery Philadelphia Kate Bright lives and works in London.

Research Interests

Interested in depicting the landscape and exploring the value and interpretation of materials, my paintings are made with the addition of glitter, glass, polystyrene or resin collaged to the surface of the canvas.

Colluding with mass culture the paintings explore the value of the sublime and the illusory aspects of ‘straight’ painting. Extending the landscape genre through this use of unorthodox materials, the collage element (my understudy for the twinkle of frosty snow, white horses crashing on the beach and the lazy ripple of the boating lake) enforces a low grade interactivity onto what might appear to be the static familiar genre of landscape painting.
Highlighting the underlying artificiality of paint the trompe-l’oeil and the figurative, the work confronts the viewer to re-assess the notion of painting and what might make a landscape painting contemporary.

Exhibitions

Soft Estate
2018 - Locks Gallery Philladelphia USA

Material:Wood
2018 - Messums Wiltshire

Material: Wood – Art & Design, a threefold programme comprised of an exhibition, festival and hands-on making experiences. Set in a thirteenth-century barn – the largest thatched building in the country – artists and makers including Thomas Heatherwick, Gareth Neal, Chris Eckersley, Richard Woods, Rob and Nick Carter and Alastair Mackie lead a survey of contemporary making practices in wood, with a focus on chair design. Russell Pinch and Christopher Kurtz.

Malevolent Eldritch Shrieking
2018 - Attercliffe™, 747 Attercliffe Road, Sheffield, S9 3RF

Malevolent Eldritch Shrieking is a large diverse international salon-style multigenerational exhibition about painting (in some aspect) initiated by Paul Morrison.

The exhibition includes work by Jan Albers, Sue Arrowsmith, Paul Barlow, Eric Bainbridge, Anthony Bennett, Michael Bevilacqua, Merijn Bolink, Juan Bolivar, Kate Bright, Ralf Broeg, Glenn Brown, Simon Campbell, John Chilver, Sacha Craddock, Michael Craig-Martin, Hansjoerg Dobliar, Rowena Dring, Marcel van Eeden, Machiko Edmondson, Tim Eitel, Roberto Ekholm, Dee Ferris, Gail Fitzgerald, Saul Fletcher, Ed Fornieles, Torben Giehler, Lothar Goetz, Deme Georghiou, Brian Griffiths, Terry Haggerty, Jane Harris, Matthew Harrison, Karolyn Hatton, Gerard Hemsworth, Gregor Hildebrandt, Stefan Hirsig, Dale Holmes, Paul Housley, Tom Howse, Des Hughes, Richard Jacobs, Ben Judd, Ben Kaufmann, Scott King, Richard Kirwan, Rannva Kunoy, Langlands & Bell, Des Lawrence, Christoph Lohmann, Bob Matthews, Caroline McCarthy, Penny McCarthy, Peter McDonald, Dominic McGill, Robert McNally, Dawn Mellor, Nathaniel Mellors, Jo Melvin, Robert Moon, Ryan Mosley, Jost Münster, Julian Opie, Carl Ostendarp, Helena Petersen, Michael Petry, Daniel Pettitt, Jan van der Ploeg, James Pyman, Ged Quinn, Barry Reigate, Bernd Ribbeck, Darren Richardson, Mark Riddington, David Risley, Ben Rivers, Neil Rumming, Lesley Sanderson & Neil Conroy, Sophie Schmidt, Gary Simmonds, Dillwyn Smith, Maxima Smith, Stephen Snoddy, Michael Stubbs, Daniel Sturgis, Srinivas Surti, Tomoaki Suzuki, Finlay Taylor, David Thorpe, Dimitra Vamiali, Riette Wanders, Mathew Weir, Richard Wentworth, Lucy Williams, Keith Wilson, Martin Wöhrl, Clare Woods, Richard Woods, Will Yackulic and more.

The show opens on Saturday 24 March 2-4pm at Attercliffe™ in Sheffield and will be open by appointment until Saturday 5 May.

Landscape and Light
2018 - Letheringham Lodge Suffolk

Exhibiton of two films made at the week long residency at Letheringham Lodge exhibited on site in the buildings at the Lodge and grounds.

Wivenhoe Water
2017 - Wivenhoe House

Commission to celebrate the 200th anniversary of John Constable's painting Wivenhoe Park.

Visualising Natural Systems and Our Understanding of Them
2017 - The Rodd Gallery, Sidney Nolan Studio and Trust, Presteigne, UK; Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, US; Van Gogh House London UK

Sydney Noland Centenary Award
2017 - Sydney Noland Trust The Rodd Presteigne

As part of the Sidney Nolan Centenary celebrations, the Sidney Nolan Trust has developed an international artist residency opportunity which involves a group exhibition at the Rodd, Herefordshire, and a four-week residency at the Bundanon Trust, New South Wales, Australia.

Three artists have been shortlisted for the group exhibition at the Rodd which will take place between 8 September and 30 September 2017.

Lost and Found, place space and belonging
2016 - World Trade Centre Jakarta Indonesia

Group Exhibition in conjunction with Art Advisory and supported by the British Council and Garuda Indonesia featuring the work of
Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo
Syagini Ratna Wulan
Sinta Tantra
Kate Bright

Edge Lands
2015 - Locks Gallery Philadelphia USA

Bright is known for landscape paintings that have utilized a range of collage elements: glitter, polystyrene balls, resin, or glass. In a 2001 interview with Stephen Hepworth she stated, “The glitter, from the moment I picked it up, was screaming to be sunshine…” This earnest association with the material, removed from its associations with craft and kitsch, allows her to evoke her own desire for visual surprise within the experience of a painting.

The “edge” in the work is twofold: figuratively as the cusp or failure of realism in painting and also literally in the edges of the landscape where shrubs, vines, and plant life grow wildly. The works constantly remind us of their two dimensionality through their collaged surfaces: a simulacrum of experience beyond painterly representation.

The perspective of previously exhibited winter paintings gazed down snow-covered paths with distinct vanishing points or looked up at snow covered branches against a blue sky. These new works look downwards, inwards, and through brambles. Visually tangled, they are marked by a more realistic hand but also a disorienting abstraction. The branches become elegant line drawings from afar. Occasionally they are smothered with both the depicted snow and thick layers of glitter, but other times left under the weight of their own image with little to no glitter to be seen.

The approach is indebted to the art historical traditions of romantic landscape painting, reflecting the mythic experience and desire for beauty we attribute to the landscape as much as the place itself. Moreover, in an era where art increasingly lives online and through photographs, the snow paintings defy photographic simplification and must truly be appreciated by the naked eye.

Salon
2014 - Eleven Gallery London

Group Show at Eleven Gallery. Annual Winter exhibition.

Starter
2014 - L'Escargot Greek St London

Exhibition of paintings and wall works exhibited at L'Escargot dining rooms. The first French Restaurant in London, L'Escargot was opened in 1927. The building houses its own art collection including work by Dali, Matisse, Grayson Perry, Peter Blake and Andrew Logan, the exhibition set up to augment this collection included works by Phil Allen, Susan Collins, David Burrows, Dan Coombs, Mali Morris, Andrew Stahl, Mike Sliva, Jeff Dennis, Jeffrey Camp.

Snow Paintings
2014 - House of St Barnabus

Group of commissioned paintings for The House Of St Barnabus London. Paintings exploring the theme of wastelands transformed after snowfall.

Glitter is used in the paintings as a mimic. Rendering the natural without being of it, an understudy for the twinkle of frosty snow and the transformative physical power of snowfall. The collage element in the work reflects the function of landscape painting, creating an image that is essentially decorative and highlighting the underlying artificiality of paint and the illusionary aspects of straight painting. The paintings provide and equivalency, a referential contact point to real experience.

Multiple Market
2012 - Handel Street Project, Sicilian Avenue London

"Following the previous Farmers’ Markets exhibition, Handel Street Projects curates Multiple Market, a group show of artists' multiples and editions. The collection of multiples offeres a new take on the gallerys' biannual investigation into connoisseurship, proximity of fine food and fine art and various other aspects of consumption and exchange of ideas. The exhibition presented a great range of produce from over 30 suppliers at the very best prices. The emphasis, as always, will be on freshness, variety and quality as well as value for money so that you have complete confidence in what you are buying. Everything from ‘do it yourself recipes’ to prêt a porter, special commissions and much more at our central London venue in Sicilian Avenue, Holborn – an area with a long history of trade and manufacturing. Selected, high quality produce will come from: Franz West, Susan Hiller, Richard Deacon, David Batchelor, Alison Wilding, Vuk Cosic, Braco Dimitrijevic, Nicholas Pope, Sally O’Reilly, Rasa Todosijevic, Lucy Gunning, Jessica Voorsanger, Zlatan Vukosavljevic, Dan Hays, Amikam Toren, Simon Faithfull, Andy Holden, Lucy Heyward, Mary Anne Francis, John Plowman, Martino Gamper, Mrdjan Bajic, Tahir Lusic, Kate Bright, Jeff McMillan, Alexandra McGlynn, Jason Oddy, Tina O’Connell, Bob and Roberta Smith, Olivier Richon, Jelena Tomasevic, Saso Sedlacek, Stefan Sehler, Gerard Williams, Kirsten Lyle, Loukia Alavanou, Richard Wentworth

In Deep
2012 - Locks Gallery Philladelphia

Solo show of Six large paintings 5' x 7' and 5' x 5' with 7 smaller works exhibited 24" x 24' at Locks Gallery Philadelphia. Paintings were concerned with the depiction of pools and the water's surface and reflections whether from the dark ghostly shadows of an underground lake to the bright dayglo of the reflected artificial light of a competition swimming pool. Using glitter, glass and thick varnish to augment the painting and re-enforce the presentation of illusion. The paintings further the dialogue between the figurative image presented and the expectation and understanding of the audience.
IN addition to the exhibition I was invited to talk at Moore College of Art's "In Conversation" programme interviewed by Barry Schwabsky. Also I spoke about the exhibition to freshmen at Tyler School of Art as part of their 1st Semester programme.

Water
2010 - Sun Valley Centre for the Arts Idaho

Sparkle and Glitter
2009 - Locks Gallery Philadelphia U.S.

Between The Woods
2008 - Locks Gallery Philadelphia U.S.

The exhibition Between the Woods was a solo show at the Locks Gallery in Philadelphia in 2008. There were five large canvas’ measuring 5’ x 7’, 3 smaller paintings measuring 3’ x 3’ a catalogue published by the gallery with an essay by Judith Stein entitled Post-Ironic Landscapes.

The paintings are made with the addition of glitter collaged to the surface of the painting. Referencing Warhol, RobPruitt and Karen Klimnick’s use of the collaged material they “Collude with mass culture” (Stien) the paintings explore the value of the sublime and the illusory aspects of ‘straight’ painting. Extending the landscape genre and enforcing a low grade interactivity onto what might appear to be the static familiar genre of landscape painting. The paintings confront the viewer into re-assessing the notion of painting and what might make a landscape painting contemporary.

The political notion of the landscape underpins the conceptual basis of the work. The physical remove from the land is seen as a gateway for our desire to further embrace it culturally.

As compensation for our lost relationship with the great outdoors and the enforced exile of the artist, (removed from the subject in the studio) liberties can be taken in re-making the connection with nature as the subject of the works. This cultural mis-use of the landscape is permitable and liberties can be taken as the addition of glitter, seen as a kitch material used by the hobbyist or for the Primary Class Christmas Project ,is the perfect understudy for the natural phenomenon it represents in the painting. A visual pun and a great mimic.

Paintings in this show Grotto 2008 and Copse 2008 were exhibited in 'Water' at the Sun Valley Centre For The Arts Idaho in 2010

10 Years
2007 - Emily Tsingou Gallery London

Collection
2006 - Taro Nasu Gallery Tokyo

Kate Bright
2005 - Locks Gallery, 600 Washington Square South, Philadelphia

Painting London
2005 - Holly Snapp Gallery Venice Italy

Part of the 51st Biennale of Contemporary Art Italy

Kate Bright
2004 - Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Kate Bright Accadueo
2004 - Vitamin, Turin, Italy

Post Flat
2003 - Locks Gallery, Philadelphia

Kate Bright
2003 - New Art Gallery, Walsall

Backwater
2003 - Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle

Getting Away From It All
2003 - Emily Tsingou Gallery, London

Kate Bright
2003 - Centro de Arte Salamanca, Spain

Tailsliding
2002 - Turku Art Museum, Finland, toured to Brno House of Arts, Czech R

Conquistadores of the Useless - Art and Mountains
2002 - Alpine Club, London

Shimmering Substance
2002 - Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol

Tailsliding
2002 - Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre, Lithuania, Museum of Contempora

Surface Tension
2001 - Holly Snapp Gallery Venice

49th Venice Biennale International Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Gallery Holly Snapp, Venice, 6 June - 25 July 2001.

Kate Bright
2001 - Emily Tsingou Gallery London

Solo Show at Emily Tsingou Gallery

Exploration of the Environment-Landscape Redefined
2000 - Barbara Gilman Gallery Miami

There is No Spirit in Painting
2000 - Le Consortium, Djion

Salon 2000
2000 - Delfina Project Space London

Another Country: The Constructed Landscape
1999 - Lawrence Rubin Greenberg VanDoren gallery, New York

Another Country: The Constructed Landscape, a multi-venue group exhibition of landscape drawings and paintings organized by artist and curator Augusto Arbizo.

Contrary to the notion of painting en plein air, many of the artists in the exhibition construct their landscapes in the studio and are inspired by markedly different ideas, including memory, science fiction, suburbia, surrealism, popular culture, and the actual practice of painting. What is particularly interesting is their concept of place as a reference for travel, fantasy and escape.

Kate Bright
1999 - Emily Tsingou Glallery London

Solo Show at Emily Tsingou Gallery London

Dumbpop
1998 - Jerwood Gallery London, Metropolitan University Gallery, Leeds

Group Show

New Paintings
1997 - Habitat Kings Road

Kate Bright
1993 - Union Street Gallery London

Map and diagram paintings

Ung Britisk Kunst
1992 - Kunsthal Arhus

Exhibition as part of Arhus Kustforening af 1847

FIAR International Prize
1991 - Palazzo Permanente, Milan, Galleria Del Chiostro Della Chiesa, Rome, L'Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris, Academy Italiana London.

Touring International Exhibition, British Artists selected by Mel Gooding.
Palazzo Permanente, Milan December 1991, Galleria Del Chiostro Della Chiesa, Rome, February 1992, L'Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris April 1992 Academy Italiana London September 1992

Marks Of Tradition
1991 - Museum Of Modern Art Oxford

British Art Show 1990
1990 - McLellan Galleries, Glasgow; touring to Leeds City Art Gallery and Hayward Gallery, London, 1990 - 1990

First International Painting Weeks at Celje, Slovenia
1988 - Likovni Salon Celje, Razstavni Salon Zdravilisca Rogaska Slatina, Galerija Ars Ljubljana

Publications

Soft Estate 978-0-9982036-5-2
- Book , Locks Art Publications , USA 2018/08/01

Kate Bright: Between the Woods
- Book , Locks Arts Publications 2008/01/01

Commission for Barts Health NHS Trust
- Artwork in Three paintings commissioned by The London and St Barts NHS Trust to be hung in the Barts Cancer Centre

Limited edition print commission with Vital Arts for St Barts and the London NHS Trust
- Artwork

Collaboration with Mario Testino
- Artwork

Back Water
- Artwork

Kate Bright
- Artwork in Exhibition of commissioned panorama and other paintings