b. 1958, Dublin. Lives in London, UK
A sculptor of quiet but immense sophistication, Kathy Prendergast’s work has persistently revolved around a potent cluster of issues, chief among which are sexuality, identity, landscape, mapping and power. Over the past decade, her work has incorporated maps modified in various ways to take on emotional and personal resonances. Though non-didactic, Prendergast’s cartographic interventions also belie shifting power structures, subtly dismantling the narratives of imperialism and colonialism, and revealing the fragility of political gestures through acts of erasure and transformation. Though enigmatic and eerily beautiful, Prendergast’s works are often marked by a sense of misdirection or loss.
Solo exhibitions include: Strata, Scarborough Museums Trust, UK (2019); Atlas, Kunst-Station St. Peter, Kön, Germany (2019); Atlas, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland; Black Maps, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (Both 2016); Or, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland (2015); Kathy Prendergast, Kinsale Arts Festival, Cork, Ireland (2014); Hippocampi (Cabbies Shelters Project), London, UK (2013); The Black Map Series, PEER, UK (2010); Douglas Hyde Gallery (2006); The Irish Museum of Modern Art (2000) and Tate Britain (1997). Group shows include: Utopia/Dystopia Revisited, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, UK, (2019); Shadowplay, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin; Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; A Slice through the World, Modern Art Oxford, UK; The Keeper; To have and to hold, The Model, Sligo, Ireland; (All, 2019). Kathy Prendergast, Dorothy Cross, Aleana Egan, Siobhán Hapaska, Isabel Nolan, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland; A Slice Through the World, MoMA Oxford; The Freud Project, Irish Museum of Modern Art (All 2018); Yokohama Triennale (2017); Tate Britain (2012); Berardo Museum, Lisbon (2011); The Irish Museum of Modern Art (2008); 14th Sydney Biennale (2004); 13th Sydney Biennale (2002); Albright-Knox, Buffalo (2001); ICA, Boston (2000); MoMA PS1, New York (1999).
In 1995, Prendergast represented Ireland at the 46th Venice Biennale, for which she won the prestigious Premio Duemila Prize.
Prendergast's work is represented in the collections of the Tate, London; the British Government; the Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville; Santa Barbara University Museum; the Albright-Knox, Buffalo; the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Contemporary Arts Society, London alongside numerous private collections in Ireland, Great Britain, Europe and the USA.
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