Exhibition at Houldsworth Gallery, London

KATIE PRATT  Pell Mell
28 November 2002 - 11 January 2003
Houldsworth Gallery - 34 Cork Street – London W1S 3NQ - tel 020 7434 2333

Houldsworth is pleased to present a new group of paintings and works on paper by Katie Pratt, her first solo exhibition since winning the 2001 Jerwood Painting Prize.  Her pieces begin with a splash of paint, an incident that sets off a chain of reactions and initiates a discovery through the process of making.  In these new works, Pratt uncovers and incorporates the physical qualities of the material: it drips, congeals, coagulates, wrinkles, scrapes, 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 paint are pushed to the limit, sometimes reaching the point where its consistency and weight give in to gravity.  The finished works look as if they are perpetually hovering over the brink losing control and holding themselves miraculously together.

Since winning the Jerwood Prize, Katie Pratt has exhibited extensively both in Britain and abroad, including Cross Currents in Los Angeles this past spring and Superfluity at the Latvijas M_kslas Akademija, Riga, Latvia this autumn.  Pratt will be exhibiting in Approaching Content, curated by Jonathan Parsons, at the Crafts Council, London in February 2003 and will have a solo exhibition at the Forum d¹Art Contemporain, Sierre, Switzerland in March 2003. This will be Katie Pratt¹s second solo exhibition at the gallery.

A catalogue for the exhibition, with an essay by Sally O¹Reilly, will be available.  Please contact the gallery for additional information or images.

Opening times        Monday-Friday, 10.00-5.30, Saturday 10.30-4.00