Katie Pratt
dal 24/1/2008 al 28/2/2008
Segnalato da
24/1/2008
Katie Pratt
Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles
Her abstract paintings appear at a distance as a violent splash of paint. The surface, however, reveals detailed, tiny marks and dashes that elaborate upon the initial gesture. Each painting begins by throwing or pouring paint at the canvas, initiating a chain of reactions and discovery through the making-process.
Kontainer Gallery is pleased to present new work from the British artist
Katie Pratt.
Based in London, Pratt has shown extensively throughout the UK and Europe,
winning prestigious Jerwood Painting Prize in 2001.
Katie Pratt’s abstract paintings appear at a distance as a violent splash
of paint. The surface, however, reveals detailed, tiny marks and dashes
that elaborate upon the initial gesture. Each painting begins by throwing
or pouring paint at the canvas, initiating a chain of reactions and
discovery through the making-process.
In these works, Pratt incorporates the physical qualities of the material:
it drips, congeals, coagulates, wrinkles, tears, curls and buckles over
and on top of itself. Often there is a curious fringe hanging from the
surface as the paint takes on a life of its own, flouting the confines of
the brushstroke. The structural possibilities and physical characteristics
of oil paint are pushed to the limit, sometimes reaching the point where
its consistency and weight give in to gravity.
Treating the first splash of paint as if it were a found object is a way
of getting started for Pratt. This presents her with a series of problems
to solve that are both the course of the painting and the subject matter.
As she works, Pratt – to an almost obsessive degree – highlights the
visual rhythms, themes and repetitions that she finds. Each of the marks,
flaws and imperfections that were at first barely perceptible are
retracted and underlined with tiny strokes and dashes that cover the
entire surface of the canvas. Like cartography, the paintings are a slow
and careful charting of what is already there, of what already resides
within the found splash. The titles of Pratt’s work suggest a location,
hinting at an unseen place and providing a clue as to what painting might
be.
This is Katie Pratt’s second solo show at Kontainer. Her work has been
recently featured in “Landscape Confection” curated by Hellen Molesworth
for Wexner Center for the Arts (traveled to MOCA Huston and Orange County
Museum of Contemporary Art) and at John Hansard Gallery in a survey of
three generations of British abstract painters with Patrick Heron and
Jonathan Lasker.
Opening Reception Friday, January 25, 2008, 6-10 pm
Kontainer Gallery
944 Chung King Road - Los Angeles
Free admission