Kate Brett (1963, UK) graduated with a BA in Three Dimensional Design and then went on to complete an MA in Fine Art Print from the Wimbledon College of Art in London. She then established her practice as an independent artist working from her studio in South West London and also holds a position as a Fine Art tutor at the Mander Portman Woodward College in London.
Her work is mainly derived from images of commuters or sections of graphics taken on the road, in stations or at airports and offers a fleeting glimpse of the transient nature of our lives. Her compositions create a sense of city life – a snippet of conversation, body language, a pigeon picking its way through the complexity of relationships both physical and human; graphic images dividing the space.
The reliefs with square elements are about mnemonics, about visual mindmapping in the urban landscape. She encourages to discover a visual diary about an imaginary day or time. The familiarity with a distant figure picking their way through a barrage of text and directions in a map like grid. Her work with round elements is based on the concept of loss and searching.
She uses a variety of materials to create a sense of movement within a tight framework, exploring the relationship between empty and crowded spaces. Generally her work is printed and drawn onto high fired porcelain, which is symbolic in its nature of the fragility of our own existence. Recently she has started creating paintings on canvas based on the same concepts as her ceramic works.
Kate Brett’s work has been exhibited in Europe and the USA and is part of many private collections. She has also been awarded with prestigious residencies in Sydney, Japan and Berlin.
