Celebration of Manmade Environment Features
The first solo exhibition in Scotland for four years by the acclaimed artist Kate Downie is running at the Watermill in Aberfeldy until 25 June.
Downie’s work combines the natural environment with manmade features, and she is perhaps best-known for a long-term study of the Forth Rail Bridge, the very latest of which is being shown for the first time in this new exhibition. Kate Downie has exhibited nationally and internationally, working in many art forms including painting, drawing, collage, installation and performance art. She is currently researching images of 21st century Scotland through the visual phenomena of civil engineering. She explained: “It is not so much how I draw, but where I point my eyes. I draw in the public arena because I must; it is my way of exploring how the world works.”
Her work examines the juxtaposition of the manmade in the natural landscape; from telegraph poles, mobile phone masts and gas towers, to a collection of battered caravans in a remote corner of the North West coast, to the magnificent cantilevers of the Forth Rail Bridge. |
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Explaining what attracted him to Kate’s work, Gallery owner Kevin Ramage explained: “Art often focuses on the natural environment, not considering manmade features as worthy subjects. On the contrary, Kate Downie celebrates these ‘foreign objects’ through her work. This exhibition gives the opportunity to appreciate the unique style of this highly regarded artist, and her individual approach to the world that we inhabit.”
The Watermill Gallery specialises in displaying modern and contemporary abstract art that draws inspiration from landscapes and the elements.
The Artist
Born in North Carolina, USA, now based in Edinburgh, Kate Downie has had solo exhibitions here and abroad and been exhibited in many group exhibitions in Scotland, London, Europe and the USA. Her work is in the collections of GoMa, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Bank of Scotland and HM the Queen. She is currently president of the Society of Scottish Artists, and was shortlisted for the prestigious Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2005.
Of her work she says: “I try to establish a fragile counterbalance between function and emotion, and place myself in the midst of action as a still point in the flux.’
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