kate bradbury

A figure with a papier mache head & cap on top. Body is made of a suitcase and the suitcase is open filled with art materials inside on both sides like paints & paintbrushes

Biography

Kate Bradbury (b.1961) based in London, is a prolific creator of a diverse range of artworks. From detailed ink scribblings over a metre in length to sculptural twirling dervishes made from found objects, her style of work is ever changing. Since 2003, the motivation for her creative endeavours comes from a variety of sources, but is particularly drawn from objects she finds. She gathers endless supplies of discarded industrial and household waste that she places in relevant boxes around her home, where they stay until the opportune moment arises.

Bradbury’s work goes through phases, sometimes focusing on figures and characters and sometimes on more abstract forms. Nevertheless each piece tells a story plucked from her imagination. Having no formal art training, Bradbury learns through trial and error, experimentation and by observations of how others work. Intuitively working day and night, Bradbury creates her pieces losing all sense of time, getting lost in the details of her drawings or sculptures.

Since showing her work in self-organised solo shows at Stoke Newington library and then in group shows organised by the effervescent Sue Kreitzman, Kate Bradbury was introduced to Jennifer Gilbert who has championed her work ever since. Several private collectors now own Bradbury’s work across the UK and her work featured and sold in the Royal Academy of Art’s Summer Show in 2016 and 2021.

A photo of an older white woman with short brown cropped hair, wearing a blue and white striped top and black cardigan standing in front of a wall with framed artworks and text in brown saying kate bradbury and an exhibition title — Courtesy of Andrew Hood, from Kate Bradbury’s London solo exhibition, 2018

Works

Click thumbnails to see larger images and more details. Further works are available on request.

A long thin heavy detailed drawing in black pen on very thin paper featuring buildings, lttle birds coming our of holes in a wheel on the left and many different kinds of marks throughout

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Selected Exhibitions

2023 Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Manchester Central
2023 Why We Linger, Darbyshire, London
2023 Outsider Art Fair, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York
2022 To all the Kings who have no Crowns, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate
2021 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2020 Monochromatic Minds: Lines of Revelation, Candid Arts Trust, London
2019 Drawing Now Paris Art Fair, Carreau du Temple
2018 From starlings to earth things and all the fish that cannot swim, Pop Up exhibition, London. Click here to see more about this exhibition →
2016 Summer Show, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2016 Radical Craft: - Alternative Ways of Making, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
2014 Outsider Art Fair Paris, Hotel le A
2013 Drawing Splinters, Knitting Bones – The Art of Kate Bradbury, Julian Hartnoll Gallery, London
2013 Squalls and Murmurations, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
2012 Outside In: National, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
2012 Outside In: London, CGP London