FIGHT THE MOON
Preview: Saturday 20 November 2021, 6-8pm.
Open: Saturdays, 11am-3:30pm until 18th December 2021.
The exhibition preview will coincide with the Paradise Works ‘Manchester Contemporary After Party’ and the Open Studios Weekend, 20th and 21st November 2021. The exhibition continues on Saturdays, 11am-3:30pm until 18th December 2021.
Paradise Works are delighted to present Katie Tomlinson’s first solo exhibition, FIGHT THE MOON which will showcase a new collection of large figurative paintings.
Tomlinson’s paintings are rich with vivid colour, playfulness and humour. The works draw the viewer in, before revealing darker and more complex narratives. Characters within the paintings demand further exploration, inviting questions around their identities, actions, motivations, and relationships with one another.
The exhibition aims to stimulate debate about feminism and the structure of power. Tomlinson has taken inspiration from her personal life and the united experiences of womxn. Using surreal and symbolic imagery, the paintings make familiar experiences strange and explore a mix of emotions and ideas: vulnerability, emotional dependency, alienation, self-empowerment, brutality, sexual desire, and patriarchal violence.
Speaking about her new body of work and responding to the discourse surrounding contemporary painting, Tomlinson says that:
‘I’m interested in what painting is today, and the idea of ‘atemporality’. As well as collaging images together, I began to think about how I could assemble different painterly styles and techniques within one painting. My paintings wouldn’t exist without the canon of patriarchal art history, everything is reconsidered, viewed differently, stolen and stolen back.’
Text: The exhibition is accompanied by a contextual essay written by Jenny Eden, an artist and Lecturer in Painting at Manchester School of Art. Read here.
Event: Katie Tomlinson will be in conversation with Zoe Watson to reflect on the exhibition FIGHT THE MOON; this will be hosted online by Paradise Works on Thursday 9 December, 6 – 7pm.
Katie Tomlinson was born in Teesside, and lives and works in Manchester and London. Katie is currently undertaking a MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art (London) supported by The Basil H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award. Recent exhibitions include Obstructions, Castlefield Gallery (Manchester); Enough is Definitely Enough, Pineapple Black (Middlesbrough); More T’ North, Harris Museum and Art Gallery (Preston). Katie’s work is in private collections in the UK and Europe, and a selection of her work is available to buy through The Manchester Art Gallery and Paradise Works Multiples.
FIGHT THE MOON is curated by Zoe Watson; Zoe is curator of the Holden Gallery and Lecturer in Art Theory and Practice at Manchester School of Art. For further details please contact Zoe: zoerwatson@gmail.com.