Art on a Postcard International Women’s Day Auction - Curated by Beth Greenacre

About 

I grew up in the west of Ireland, so there was little access to galleries and museums. Instead I was fascinated by craft and clothes and buildings.  

My tastes were formed by my mother’s interest in fashion. She often visited a local woollen mill to buy fabric and go to dressmakers to have her clothes made up based on designs from magazines. This process of seeing a garment made from start to finish made me understand the stages involved in making. My mother also wrote and was interested in politics so there was the duality of engaging both with sensuality and ideas, the body and the intellect.  

As a result, women’s writing, design and architecture have a large influence on my practice. I am looking at the sensuality of objects and how a good design and architecture contribute to a physical and mental wellbeing. When looking at architecture of female architects I am looking at how they include a sensitivity to the needs of the body and decorative elements within buildings.  

My time spent in the studio making is very performative. I am using my body to make large works on the floor and moving them around the space, looking at them in various stages of making, reworking them and spending time with them, allowing them to speak to me so that I know when they are finished. 

Education 

Goldsmiths MFA 

Select Exhibitions/Awards 

Solo exhibitions include Kate MacGarry, London 2022, Silver House, Visual Carlow, Ireland, 2019; Espace Croisé, Centre d'Art Contemporain, France, 2016; Silver House, Uillinn and West Cork Arts Centre, Ireland, 2015.  

Group shows include LUMA by Jenn Ellis, London 2023, Frieze Art Fair, London, 2022, Making and Momentum, curated by Richard Malone, Roquebrune, France, and National Museum, Dublin, Ireland, 2021; Andersen’s Contemporary, Copenhagen, May 2018, Show Window, Kate MacGarry, London, 2016; Folly: Art After Architecture, Glucksman Gallery, Cork, 2014; A House of Leaves, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, 2013. Silver House was screened as part of the Official Selection Milano Design Film Festival, 2017. 

Gallery Representation 

Kate MacGarry, London 
 

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artworks 

These works are from a series of watercolours started in lockdown. I wanted to make work while sitting at the kitchen table, portable works which could tidied away and taken out again. The watercolours are added in layers and metallic colours are the final layer. They are activated in the daylight and change colour with the light. Making these works have reminded me that what looks simple is complicated to make. I took the titles from short stories by Julio Cortázar. I read a lot when drawing, somehow the language enters the images. 

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