Intimate in tone and subject matter, Kathy Prendergast’s practice combines drawing, sculpture and installation. What might appear minimal or elusive at first glance can encompass a complex web of emotional, personal and political resonances. Proximate to the body and connecting subjective reflections on the world, her work explores a potent cluster of issues including power, identity, landscape, memory, geography, and family. A connection between the body and landscape, often manifested through mapping, can be traced back to the beginning of her practice. Often using redaction or removal as a device, creating negative space through black ink, coloured paint or white paper, the artist erases or overwrites geographic expressions of power. Prendergast points out the subjectivity of maps, their inherent colonialism, and the ultimate fragility of borders and territories over time. Though delicate, fragile and usually on a human scale, her works also point towards the infinite – suggesting the vastness of space or the constellations of the sky. Prendergast’s work is methodical – the product of slow, repetitive processes requiring patience, precision and devotion. Faithful to mark-making, drawing and hand-crafting as well as the revelatory potential of sparking unfamiliar connections with everyday objects, her work is enigmatic, eerily beautiful and emotionally resonant.
Kathy Prendergast lives and works in London.
Kathy Prendergast
Road Trip 17, 2023
Gouache on paper
39 x 54 cm / 15.4 x 21.3 in
44.6 x 60.3 x 4 cm / 17.6 x 23.7 x 1.6 in framed
Kathy Prendergast
Interior with Light, 2018
Wood, paint, museum Plexiglas
210.8 x 182.9 x 91.5 cm / 83 x 72 x 36 in
Kathy Prendergast
Window Series 6, 2018
giclée print, edition of 3 + 1AP
42 x 59.4 cm / 16.5 x 23.4 in unframed
43.7 x 61 x 3 cm / 17.2 x 24 x 1.2 in framed
Kathy Prendergast
Fujidelic, 2015-2016
ink on paper
46 x 58 cm / 18.1 x 22.8 in unframed
51 x 63 x 4 cm / 20.1 x 24.8 x 1.6 in framed
Kathy Prendergast
Atlas 2
INVERNESS-LERWICK, 2017
AA Road Atlas of Europe, ink
30.5 x 43.5 x 1 cm / 12 x 17.1 x .4 in
Collection of Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
Kathy Prendergast
The World in 12 Pieces, 2014-15
modified maps in aluminum frames, edition of 3 and 1AP
430 x 280 x 3 cm / 169.3 x 110.2 x 1.2 in
Kathy Prendergast
Eclipse, 2014-15
painted globes, wood
204 x 96.5 x 117 cm / 80.3 x 38 x 46.1 in
Collection of Crawford Art Gallery, Cork
Kathy Prendergast
Black Map – Czech Republic, 2016
ink on printed paper, diptych
119.8 x 106.3 cm / 47.2 x 41.9 in framed each
Kathy Prendergast
Embrace, 2010 - 2020
bronze, unique
30 x 25 x 31 cm / 11.8 x 9.8 x 12.2 in
Kathy Prendergast
Between Love and Paradise I, 2002
digital iris print, edition of 25
42 x 57 cm / 16.5 x 22.4 in
Kathy Prendergast
The Grey Before Dawn, 2009
bronze and paint
52 x 57 x 68 cm / 20.5 x 22.4 x 26.8 in
Kathy Prendergast
A Dream of Discipline, 1989-2006
mattress and chalk
225 x 135 x 120 cm / 88.6 x 53.1 x 47.2 in
Kathy Prendergast
BLACK BED, 2007
patinated bronze with paint
10 x 158 x 96 cm / 3.9 x 62.2 x 37.8 in
Kathy Prendergast
Grave Blanket (Version 1), 1997
woolen blanket and marble chippings
108 x 71 cm / 42.5 x 28 in
Collection of Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Kathy Prendergast
Secret Kiss, 1999
knitted wool, 3 versions
40 x 20 x 33 cm / 15.7 x 7.9 x 13 in
Kathy Prendergast
The End and the Beginning II, 1996
three generations of human hair and wooden spool
5.5 x 4 cm / 2.17 x 1.57 in
Kathy Prendergast’s solo exhibitions include Tate Britain, Camden Arts Centre, and Southbank Centre in London; Nottingham Contemporary, UK; Kunst-Station St. Peter, Cologne; the Irish Museum of Modern Art; Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. She has also exhibited at PS1 and the Drawing Centre, New York; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; the ICA, Boston; Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago; Contemporary Art Museum, St Louis; Chisenhale Gallery, and the Royal Geographic Society, London; MoMA Oxford; Kettle's Yard, Cambridge; Arnolfini, Bristol; Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Turner Contemporary, Margate; The Hugh Lane Gallery and the RHA, Dublin; Limerick City Gallery, Limerick; The Model, Sligo; Turku Art Museum, Turku; Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki; Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; Berardo Museum, Lisbon; Museum Morsbroich, Germany; and Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai. Biennales and repeating exhibitions include EVA International; the British Art Show; the 13th and 14th Sydney Biennales and the Yokohama Triennale. In 1995, Prendergast represented Ireland at the 46th Venice Biennale and won the prestigious Premio 2000 (Best Young Artist).
Public collections include Tate, London; the Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville; Santa Barbara University Museum; the Albright-Knox, Buffalo; the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; The Hugh Lane, Dublin & Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.
Kathy Prendergast
The Otherside, Borderlands In Contemporary Irish Art, 2020
Dortmunder U, Dortmund, Germany
Photo: Roland Baege
Kathy Prendergast
Atlas, 2019
Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Köln, Germany
Photo: Chris Franken
Kathy Prendergast
A Slice through the World: Contemporary Artists' Drawings, 2018
Modern Art Oxford, UK
Photographer: Andy Stagg
Kathy Prendergast
Islands, Constellations and Galapagos, Yokohama Triennale 2017
Yokohama, Japan
Kathy Prendergast
Or, 2015
Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland
Kathy Prendergast
The Black Map Series, 2010
PEER, London, UK
Kinsale Arts Festival is proud to present Kathy Prendergast's solo show, The Furthest Place from the Centre of the Earth, of recent and existing works, providing a survey of her past work and future directions.
Kathy Prendergast, Strata exhibition at Scarborough Art Gallery (14 September 2019 – 5 January 2020), curated by Invisible Dust for Scarborough Museums Trust. Courtesy of Invisible Dust
Dorothy Cross and Kathy Prendergast are both in A Matter of Time, a major group exhibition at Crawford Art Gallery, Cork from 17 February – 3 June 2024.
This major touring exhibition challenges the male-dominated narratives of post-war British sculpture by presenting a diverse and significant range of ambitious work by women.
Work by Kathy Prendergast is included in Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022, a major exhibition spanning four centuries of artwork.
Work by Kathy Prendergast will be included in Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945, a touring exhibition starting at The Box and The Levinsky Gallery at the University of Plymouth.
