Bio
Born in Birmingham, Kathleen’s work is about associations between aesthetics, politics, class and pop culture. Her practice is multidisciplinary ranging from traditional fine art print techniques such as etching and woodcut, to nail art and hand-sewn tracksuits.
In a traditional art context, enjoying pop culture has to be ironic or at best a ‘guilty pleasure’. Kathleen’s work aims to demonstrate the beauty and value of mainstream culture, through work such as a still life of an AF1 or an Adidas jacket stretched on a canvas.
Kathleen has a focus on printmaking in her practice due to its potential for repetition, affordability and therefore accessibility; and its associations with textiles, fashion, newspapers and magazines. By contrasting ‘low culture’ with ‘high culture’ through materials and subject matter, she aims to bring into focus the subtleties and divisive nature of the class hierarchy in British culture. Grounded in an interest in place, something Kathleen gained perspective on when she began her BA in Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art in 2018, her work reflects on ‘Englishness’ and the perceived lack of culture in “Middle England”.
Interested in fashion, identity, social status, material culture and feminism, Kathleen’s work can be tongue in cheek, humorous and initially obvious or clumsy but on further investigation demonstrates the complexity of modern-day Britain in a blunt, poignant and accessible way.
A recent development in her work is Nail Art which addresses her concern that fine art is not encountered in the real world and therefore lacks potential to be activist or entertainment for the majority.