Kathryn Maple – A Year of Drawings

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She said: “My studio is not very big at all and I had to stretch the painting at a friend’s studio because I wouldn’t have got it out the door. Maybe with this prize I can think about getting a bigger space.” The painting is based on two worlds – Uneo park in Tokyo, a verdant oasis of calm away from the city, and the people she sees near her home in Lewisham, south-east London. She describes the painting, measuring 2.2 metres by 2.4 metres, as a “meeting place, an intersection, people seemingly aware of each other, but minds elsewhere … all sharing an open space”. It’s bizarre how the mood surfaces later with that kind of feeling. It was really interesting to hear the comments that I received from the panel. The painting definitely has that sort of rush of people finding their place again in the world, finding their feet again. There is a sort of buzz and energy building amongst them.

Camille Pissarro, Charing Cross Bridge, London, French, 1830 – 1903, 1890, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon The final exhibition contains an installation of over 70 ceramic works from Anita Besson’s private collection, and 2 dimensional work by Anthony Caro, Olga Chernysheva, Richard Deacon, Laura Ford, Richard Long, Paula Rego, Clare Woods and Bedwyr Williams, amongst others. Kathryn said, “Since winning the prize I have been able to rent a bigger studio and buy a bit more paint and canvas, which has allowed me to find more freedom in my work. My paintings have certainly reached a few more people and I am excited to have the opportunity to show my recently finished paintings in one space together at The Walker Art Gallery.” Also announced today, Kiki Xuebing Wang is awarded the first Emerging Artist Prize, supported by Winsor & Newton Selected from almost 3,000 entries, Kathryn’s work will also be acquired by the Walker Art Gallery to join its world-class collectionAccompanied by a series of prints made from solar plates there is an emphasis on the comfort in the cadence and repetition of ongoing cycles that both anchor and elude us.’ In an adjoining room is New Works at the Walker, a corresponding display. Together, the shows demonstrate ‘two strands of an ongoing commitment to contemporary collecting and supporting newer artists’, according to Jessie Petheram, Assistant Curator of Fine Art at National Museums Liverpool. The most striking thing about this display of new works is its breadth. Elegant, delicate examples of decorative art by local crafters include ‘Magic Mushrooms’ (2022) by north Wales-based glass artist Verity Pulford, for which the artist used the ‘páte-de-verre’ technique of firing glass grains in the kiln to make a flat shape, and ‘Beech Leaf caddy spoon’ (2022), an enamel-on-silver spoon with a veined leaf by Ruth Ball, who is based in Southport. To the left is a dramatic glazed ­stoneware vase made in 2022 by Attila Olah, who started Altar Pottery in Toxteth in 2018. These items were made through a bequest by the family of Peter Urquhart with the support of the Bluecoat Display Centre, where Urquhart was the Chairman from 2001–18, and demonstrate the work of contemporary crafters. The painting resonates with movement and communality and embodies the deeply social nature of humans,” said Michelle Williams Gamaker, one of the judges. “It fills me with hope and longing to be part of this form of connection again.” Direct community input into acquisition-making is not part of the process, but it is something ‘interesting and positive’ that Petheram ‘would love to see in the future’. The Walker had input from LGBTQI+ groups as part of the aforementioned Coming Outexhibition, and the Sandbach Research and Display Project – a steering group of seven local young people from marginalised communities – has been reinterpreting the Walker’s sculpture gallery in relation to Liverpool’s colonial history, particularly the Sandbach family’s links to both slavery and art collection. But whether the gallery would incorporate such collaboration in their collecting process remains an open question. ‘That would be great’, Petheram says. ‘The appetite is there, and generally galleries are heading that way.’ She notes that the Walker held a similar exhibition to New Works at the Walker about ten years ago, and they are now considering showing new acquisitions each decade. But in the face of substantial government cuts to the arts, they will have to wait and see. Nonetheless, she remains hopeful: ‘we are an actively collecting institution, and we want to continue.’ The 2020 jury represent a diverse group of artists and creative influencers: Hurvin Anderson; Michelle Williams Gamaker; Alison Goldfrapp; Jennifer Higgie and Gu Wenda.

Gethin Evans, Towards Skomer – study 3 graphite and pencil on paper 135cm x 105cm 2016, who is exhibiting at the Tregony Gallery Drawing In exhibition John Stezaker’s curation of Paul Nash’s stunning and radical inter-war landscapes focuses on their transformative character which changed British landscape painting forever. I even miss the mundane things, like everyday conversations asking people how they are. Everyone has been ‘grinning and bearing’ it for so long, thinking positively even though there has been no sort of timeline. I miss those everyday dialogues, and seeing those face-to-face reactions. Through the mask you’re not getting that sort of same character, are you? Selected exhibitions include The John Moores Painting Prize, The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2020); Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London (2020-2021); The Just, Virtual Exhibition, Aleph Contemporary, London (2020); Works on Paper, Frestonian Gallery, London (2020); The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019); Everything’s Wrong, Ain’t Nothing Right?, Assembly House Studios, Leeds (2019); A Showcase of Paintings and Design, Albert Bridge Studios, London (2019); The Summer Open Exhibition, Wiltshire (2019); The Current Under the Sea, The Pie Factory, Margate (2018); Fresh Paint, Messums, Wiltshire (2018); and John Moores Painting Prize, The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2018). This exhibition both in subject matter and in organisation challenges the concept and mechanisms of how museum’s work. It asks the question ‘why if museums are for everyone is it only a select group of people who choose what is collected and displayed?’Under a Hot Sun is my first solo show, it is huge opportunity to show my paintings at the Walker Art Gallery. The Walker has a great permanent collection and I’m in the company of many artists who have inspired my practice. She has exhibited extensively including Southwark Park Galleries, London, Kukje Gallery, Seoul and the Museum of the Himalayers, Shanghai.

Additionally, the Tate has developed a VR experience of Modigliani’s The Ochre Atelier: his last studio in the centre of Paris in the early 20th century. This is a chance to enter into the mindset of Modigliani and fully consider his short and intense life. Thanks to the Painting Prize, the Walker is the perfect venue to see high-quality painting throughout the year, yet Under a Hot Sun is an absolute highlight in Liverpool’s art calendar. Kathryn Maple’s Under a Hot Sun opens on 13 February 2023 and runs until 30 April 2023. For more information, visit: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/kathrynmaple. Arms wide open’ was one of the first paintings that really launched ideas and questions I wanted to try and focus on with the following paintings. I have really enjoyed seeing the works come from that and seeing them next to each other allowing for conversations to begin.

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The display would, though, benefit from just a few more works on paper to really see the complexity of preparation for each larger piece. One lonely, monochrome monoprint displayed in the corner doesn’t represent the breadth of this particular medium’s possibilities and certainly does not capture the artist’s sensitivity or technical experiments. If anything, it feels a little out of place. Drawing In as a name speaks of the clever and subtle humour of the exhibition as a whole. It refers both to the drawing in of light as we approach the shortest day of the year and to the fact this is the first exhibition to be held at The Tregony Gallery dedicated solely to drawing as a practice.