Kate Knight
Erotic 18th century miniature portraits have been a fundamental inspiration underpinning my painting practice for the last two decades.
In particular the portraits of women and girls, housed within the opulent walls of The Wallace Collection. Females bound in gilded frames, voiceless and often nameless muses. In dialogue with these portraits I seek to weaponise these privately intended titillations and twist them into challenging acts of womanhood. Exposing the disfiguring reality of contorting flesh into ill fitting form, in pursuit of ideals. Capturing comical calamities that speak of the irreverent in-between and unseen.
Frontal imagery, pushes up against claustrophobic reflections, a series of decisions, judgements and critiques taking place upon a somewhat sacred ground. Private in its gendered nature. Perfuming the spirit of this work, is a magical aesthetic, in which shifting colour arouses subversive form, enveloped by a sweetly scented plumes. These powdered women shift glamouring with She-Hulk potential, emboldening the painted heroine within, as she daringly freaks the oval
THE ART CAR BOOT FAIR PLAY FREE
Have you got your tickets yet?