Kathy Prendergast

Kathy Prendergast's practice, intimate in tone and subject matter, combines drawing, sculpture, and installation.

Biography of Kathy Prendergast

Kathy Prendergast was born in 1958 in Dublin, Ireland. She studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and the Royal College of Art in London.

During her career, Prendergast has received nu,erous awards and grants, including Alice Berger Hammerschlager Travel Grant (1982), Arts Council of Ireland Travel Grant (1982), Guinness Peat Aviation Award for Emerging Artists (1983), Henry Moore Foundation Fellowship (1986), Rome Award in Sculpture (1992), Premio 2000 at Venice Biennale (1995), David and Yuko Juda Art Foundation Award (2018), among others. 

Kathy Prendergast's solo exhibitions have been held at various galleries and museums, including Kerlin Gallery, Scarborough Museum Trust, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Crawford Art Gallery, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Angel Row Gallery, Tate Britain, Peter Scott Gallery, and many more. 

Her works have also been featured in numerous group shows, including "The Narrow Gate of Here-and-Now" at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin (2022), "Bones in the Attic" at The Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin (2022), "Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945" at  Ferens Art Gallery in Hull (2022), among others.

Currently, Kathy Prendergast resides in London. 

Kathy Prendergast's Art Style

Kathy Prendergast's work often appears minimal or elusive at first glance but reveals a complex web of emotional, personal, and political resonances upon closer inspection. Central to her practice is the exploration of issues such as power, identity, landscape, memory, geography, and family, often connecting these themes to the body.

Prendergast frequently employs mapping as a motif, reflecting on the relationship between the body and landscape. She uses techniques like redaction and removal, creating negative space with black ink, colored paint, or white paper to erase or overwrite geographic expressions of power. This approach highlights the subjectivity of maps, their colonial implications, and the fragility of borders over time.

Her works, though delicate and usually on a human scale, suggest the vastness of space and the constellations of the sky, pointing towards the infinite. Prendergast's process is methodical, involving slow, repetitive actions that require patience and precision. Her commitment to mark-making, drawing, and hand-crafting, combined with her ability to spark unfamiliar connections with everyday objects, results in work that is enigmatic, eerily beautiful, and deeply emotionally resonant.