africanah.org

Arena for Contemporary African, African-American and Caribbean Art

Kate Arthur

ka_blueghost2016

 

Kate Arthur

Blue Ghost, 2016.

About:

Kate Arthur was born in Kwa-Zulu Natal in 1985 and grew up in the Eastern Cape. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from Rhodes University in 2007, graduating with distinctions in both Studio Practice and Art History & Visual Culture. During her university career her work was included in three Rhodes University Student Exhibitions for the National Arts Festival, and she was selected as a finalist for the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum Biennale (2006 and 2008), Sasol New Signatures Competition (2007) and the ABSA L’Atelier Awards (2008). After completing a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education, she moved to Taipei for 3 years to teach English and travel. Returning to South Africa in 2013, she took a position at David Krut Projects in Johannesburg, where she was involved in the gallery, bookstore and print workshop. In 2014 she moved to Cape Town to begin pursuing her own artistic career, and has since participated in a number of group shows and art fairs around the country. Her 2015 entry for the Sanlam Portrait Award Competition was selected as one of the Top 40 Finalists and won the House & Leisure Readers’ Choice Award.

 

kablueii

Blue II.

 

kapink15
Pink 15.

kapink19

Pink 19.

Arthur works predominantly in painting, drawing and more recently in printmaking – mostly monotypes – coinciding with an internship at Warren Editions. She is interested in portraiture, the body, and notions of identity – particularly Queer identity and its intersectional overlaps. She is committed to representing people who might for various reasons be marginalised, acknowledging their bodies as sites for individual and collective expression of history, politics, and identity.(text Warren Editions)