Kate Downie: Conversations with Joan

Name: Kate Downie: Conversations with Joan
Start: 2024-09-12T00:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-01-25T23:59:59+00:00
Location: Glasgow Women’s Library

12th September, 2024 to 25th January, 2025

Free

mix media pastel sketch of a child standing in front of a red background — Scarlet by Kate Downie. Photo Credit Michael Wolchover

An exhibition at GWL

This solo exhibition brings painter-printmaker Kate Downie into conversation with renowned Scottish painter Joan Eardley (1921 -63). Through a suite of new works, Downie creates new ways of seeing Eardley, acknowledging her as an important creative influence and retelling stories of care that carry over time.

In her work, Downie has tackled similar themes to Eardley – the urban landscape, coastal terrain – and there is a sense of connection, an understanding in her artistic practice. Drawn to the possibilities left open by Eardley’s ‘Two Children’ (1962–63), found incomplete on the artist’s easel at her death, Downie has created two new paintings: one in which she ‘finished’ the painting in her own way, the other a new major banner painting ‘Dead or Alive’ co-created with local children, incorporating their marks with hers. It reflects her continuing interest in childhood sibling relationships and the role of children, their creative output and the impact upon both Joan Eardley’s art and her own.

This exhibition will take you with Downie as she documents her journey, sharing her insights and discoveries as she looks, thinks, draws and paints to better understand Eardley and this, her final ambitious canvas.

Remembering and celebrating less heard but resonant stories is one way that we act as a catalyst, understanding that history is alive for the women that use our services. We have therefore been proud to show Joan Eardley’s artworks in our space, receiving a warm reception, often from audiences experiencing painting for the first time. Given this we are thrilled at the prospect of working closely with Kate Downie and continuing that conversation with Joan in meaningful ways.

We will be celebrating the Launch of the exhibition along with our new programme on Thursday the 12th of September from 5.30 – 7pm. Join us for refreshments and to hear from Kate.

Save the date: We will be launching a new publication delving into the project on Thursday the 24th of October from 5.30 – 7pm. Booking details will follow shortly.

Kate Downie RSA is an American-born, British landscape artist whose career over the past 30 years has spanned the media of painting, drawing, printmaking, performance and film. Teaching, communal art making and curating are intrinsic to her practice. Downie’s work responds to subjects as diverse as North Sea oil platforms, breweries, hospitals and bridge construction. Downie has won numerous awards and residencies throughout her career and her work appears in public and private collections worldwide.