Kate Brown

Artist’s Statement

What I like to do most of all is wonder. This Is what sets my work in motion. When I wondered what ‘negative space’ could possibly be or if it existed all, I began an investigation in my work that would span two decades. Questioning that one standard, but obsolete, phrase from the language of painting, propelled me through numerous media like blow torch paintings on wood, burlap bag installations and a substantial body of work on black velvet tarpaulins with extracted markings, text, images and at times, projections. It was also the basis for my thesis.

In 2010, I felt that my investigation had led me right back to painting itself. After two decades I began to paint on canvas once again. I felt that what I had studied, learned and experienced about space must now be synthesized. I had to trust that my findings would present themselves on canvas. I began to wonder about gravity and drops and how many drops did a space need to comprise a form. How many intersections would cause a direction change in the line and on and on, on and on, I wonder.

Kate Brown has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. After earning her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Brown developed her own visual language using extract on black velvet tarpaulins. Although these large scale singular works garnered critical attention, Brown persisted with her investigation into the language and perception of space, which has now led her back to painting on canvas. Kate Brown continues her focused exploration in the solitude of her forest studio, the Lilac Hill Creative Reserve, three hours north of Toronto, and visits New York frequently.

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About Posit Editor

Susan Lewis (susanlewis.net) is the Editor-in-chief and founder of Posit (positjournal.com) and the author of ten books and chapbooks, including Zoom (winner of the Washington Prize), Heisenberg's Salon, This Visit, and State of the Union. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies such as Walkers in the City (Rain Taxi), They Said (Black Lawrence Press), and Resist Much, Obey Little (Dispatches/Spuyten Duyvil), as well as in journals such as Agni, Boston Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Conjunctions online, Diode, Interim, New American Writing, and VOLT.