Kathryn Maple – A Year of Drawings

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This exhibition focuses on the move by French artists in the 1870s to the safely of England. These émigrés fled from insurrection in Paris and the Franco-Prussian war. It includes work by Monet, Tissot, Pissarro, Dalou, Sisley, Derain and Legros. Kathryn said, “Since winning the prize I have been able to rent a bigger studio and buy a bit more paint and canvas, which has allowed me to find more freedom in my work. My paintings have certainly reached a few more people and I am excited to have the opportunity to show my recently finished paintings in one space together at The Walker Art Gallery.”

The above image is by Kathryn Maple, who is interested in the possibilities mark making and image making provide. She combines densely detailed areas with sparse space forming work that mimics tapestries without using any thread, instead she relies on paint and line. She graduated from Prince’s Drawing School Postgraduate Programme in 2013 and won the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 2014.

The Walker Art Gallery has announced Kathryn Maple the winner of the John Moores Painting Prize 2020 with her vibrant work, The Common. Laith McGregor, Holly Mills, Igor Moritz, Benjamin Murphy, Mark Mullin, Dominic Musa, Dominic Myatt, While I was able to dig into the process with a curator, the ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ of acquiring might still be hazy for the general visitor – with only three short interpretation panels explaining what is a complicated, layered process. Yet, the show does feel like a small step in the right direction, and there is an array of work from a diverse range of artists. In a context where empty words around decolonising and queering collections proliferate, and access to capital fuels the success of many new artists, it is promising to witness a pledge to more open processes and concrete support of contemporary artists. One example is the temporary solo show, such as Maple’s, which is beneficial to both the artist and the gallery. But galleries must also acquire works by historically marginalised artists for their permanent collections and commit to displaying them – and work towards incorporating direct community-based methods of acquisition to ensure further voices are heard.

I just keep going and going and going’ … Maple, who is also training to be a tree surgeon. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian Having won the 2020 edition of the prize with the piece The Common, which is now part of the gallery’s permanent collection, Under a Hot Sun will be Maple’s first solo show and will be led by the overarching theme of extreme environmental changes. Do you feel that your work evokes a nostalgic response from viewers after all we’ve been through collectively? Under a Hot Sun is my first solo show, it is huge opportunity to show my paintings at the Walker Art Gallery. The Walker has a great permanent collection and I’m in the company of many artists who have inspired my practice. Gethin Evans, Towards Skomer – study 3 graphite and pencil on paper 135cm x 105cm 2016, who is exhibiting at the Tregony Gallery Drawing In exhibition

Technically this exhibition focuses on these artists’ experience of London, the friendships they formed there and their involvement with the British art scene. The claim being they not only developed the British scene itself but it dramatically changed their own work.

Kathryn Maple studied Fine Art Printmaking in Brighton and like many of the currently most compelling drawers and painters (including Joana Galego, Alice Macdonald and Jake Grewal), she then went on to study at the Royal Drawing School. Since then, she has exhibited widely in London, as well as Leeds, Kent and Berlin. In 2018 she was shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize, while in 2021 she won with her work The Common. This is where her close relationship with National Museums Liverpool and the city itself began, leading to the present solo show at the Walker Art Gallery. Kathryn Maple’s Under a Hot Sun opens on 13 February 2023 and runs until 30 April 2023. For more information, visit: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ kathrynmaple. Kathryn Maple’s Under a Hot Sun opens on 13 February 2023 and runs until 30 April 2023. For more information, visit: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/kathrynmaple. Winning first prize in 2020 with ‘The Common’, now part of the gallery’s permanent collection, Kathryn is the second John Moores Painting Prize winner to be given the opportunity to present work in a solo exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery.Mark-making is at the heart of Maple’s practice: exacting shapes and lines contrast with areas which have been lightly worked. Her colour palette is vivid – forest greens, rich indigos and deep magentas. A foliage motif lends an ethereal and mysterious atmosphere to her dense compositions, but recognisable references such as the swoosh of a Nike logo on a pair of trainers, and a yellow Nivea crest on a bottle of sun cream, set the works firmly in the contemporary moment.