Exhibitions

Kara Burrowes – Casting Light on Shadows

14 April – 17 May 2024

The work in this show continues with the theme of hiraeth, a prominent thread through Kara Burrowes work during her Master of Fine Arts at Canterbury University, completed in March 2023 and awarded Distinction. Seated in nostalgia and an inexplicable longing for ‘home’, Kara works intuitively to express her inner dialogue. Drawn to shadow, reflection, muted, foggy and hazy memory, Kara works to get the feeling translated onto a surface through the use of a variety of media, often unorthodox. Beneath the layers of sublime acrylic paint, scraped back and reworked, are media such as resin or wax, sometimes burned, giving a texture and a sense of something unknown – or unknowable – concealed beneath.

Unintentionally trying to push the conventional but rather using whatever means feels right intuitively, Kara Burrowes is happy to combine and experiment with materials freely. The paintings, using multiple layers, allow glimpses of underlayers and workings below. Equally, areas are submerged, seeking to disguise secrets held within the work. Discovering the darkest of moments and the lightest of feeling, the works explore a quiet spectrum.

The intimate, 6×4 snapshot size Embroideries are intensely worked impressions of a moment. They are intended to be viewed alongside the scale of the paintings as an identified moment from a scene and memory.

New images of some works in exhibition will be uploaded this week.