Artist's work is characterised by the creation of a slowly emerging personal vocabulary of sculptures and paintings that the artist makes and re-makes in evolving assemblages and environments. Her processes are measured and refined, and draw on the most intimate of personal experiences to create a compelling autobiographical thread coupled with a precise and liberated formal language.
Cathy Wilkes' work is characterised by the creation of a slowly emerging personal vocabulary of sculptures and paintings that the artist makes and re-makes in evolving assemblages and environments. Her processes are measured and refined, and draw on the most intimate of personal experiences to create a compelling autobiographical thread coupled with a precise and liberated formal language.
A Sony television, a Maclaren baby buggy, a jar of BonneMaman apricot preserve for example, all appear in her installations as a catalogue of readymades. The installations
"are in a state of perpetual change in which repetition relates more to the biological rather than to the industrial... Central to the feminine sphere is the notion of invisible labour, present in all aspects of everyday life yet kept outside of the systems of material and symbolic gratification."
Exhibition supported by the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation and The Henry Moore Foundation.
Artist's fee supported by The Elephant Trust.
Related Events:
Talk Back
Cathy Wilkes: Saturday 26 April
11–11.30am
An informal discussion-based tour of the exhibition with members of the Gallery education team.
In Conversation
Wednesday 14May, 7–8pm
Curator and writer Polly Staple will discuss Cathy Wilkes’ work with Gill Perry, Professor and Head of Art History at The Open University.
Milton Keynes Gallery
900 Midsummer Boulevard, Milton Keynes
Free admission