Close
Kate Downie believes in the transformational character of art. She applies her boundless energy to the project of making art in the certain belief that it matters. This optimism is part of her character sure, but goes beyond the personal: the work is made in an open, effusive, generous spirit; it is hers but it is not for her, it is for all of us. She has always sought collaborations, acknowledged her kindred spirits in art, travelled to learn new techniques in new materials, shared ideas (when some would keep them close to the chest like a poker hand) and enriched her practice.
So an exhibition of new work, significantly here at The Scottish Gallery for the Edinburgh Festival when we look outward with pride, is always going to be in narrative form, an internal and real journey, always hers but shared, its destination not wholly known at the outset. Anatomy of Haste is an important contribution to visual art for the Festival, 2017, the artist’s invitation to pause, the antithesis of her apparent subject.
Kate Downie was born in North Carolina but raised from the age of 7 in Scotland. She studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen before travel and residencies took her to the United States, England, Amsterdam, Paris and Japan. Her constant search for new challenges and inspirations has seen her set up studios in such diverse places as a brewery, an oil rig, and an abandoned Hydroponicum.
As a Landscape painter her subject matter is often the man-made rather than the natural, but it is defined by good draughtsmanship and a sense of movement.
‘One of my creative concerns is to define these spaces between buildings rather than the buildings themselves. The object lesson for me is the witnessing and the drawing of these nonplaces which are also, by definition, public arenas of cumulative activity. My job as an artist is to accommodate these actions in our contemporary lives, and to find the poetry within.’
– Kate Downie
Struggling to find that perfect gift? We have the solution! A Scottish Gallery Gift Voucher is the perfect gift for friends, family, customers and colleagues.
Own Art is a national initiative that makes buying contemporary art and craft affordable by providing interest-free credit for the purchase of original work.