Up in the Boughs Print

Kate Brown was raised in the rural setting of the Village of Clarkson Ontario. Very early on she was inspired by a small book of Kandinsky images that she found in her Father's den. This set the course for her future abstract bodies of work Having subsequently travelled extensively and receiving a degree in Visual Arts at the University of Western Ontario, she embarked on an adventurous six year stay in NYC where she received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts where she was fortunate to study under artists like Judy Pfaff, Will Insley, Petah Coyne to name a few. While in New York, Brown had numerous opportunities to exhibit her work as well as spear head some ground breaking initiatives like her 40' long collaborative installation in the East River at South Sea Port in Manhattan as well as curating a number of notable exhibitions at Tribeca Lab, a venue she initiated. Returning to Canada, and having to support her studio practice, she once again created a dynamic exhibition and lecture series at the flagship Chapters store which was called the Mantle Project. Over 100 well known Toronto artists were able to exhibit their work and give lectures to a public that might not otherwise have had the opportunity to be exposed to all of their exciting work. At the same time Brown was able to continue her rigorous studio practice and have solo show at Index G Gallery, a number of solo exhibitions at Warc Gallery in the 401 Richmond building, She also had the inaugural exhibition at the then newly renovated Lonsdale Gallery. Several of her shows garnered favorable full page reviews in Canada's national paper The Globe and Mail. Kate Brown has most notably been awarded the Joyce Wieland Protege Honor from Arts Toronto and the Hudson Bay Scholarship for a residency at The Banff Center of Fine Art. Recently Brown has participated in art residencies at Castle Hill in Massachuetts where she was able to work with artist, writer and gallerist Michael David and painter Brenda Goodman. Another very important residency for her was the Critical Thinking Residency in Brooklyn where Brown had the opportunity to have her work critiqued by well known NYC Art Critic David Cohen. Kate Brown's work has spanned numerous risk taking media from black velvet tarpaulins, to burlap to acrylic on canvas all of which convey a rare poetic intelligence. Her one of a kind artist books are in the collection of Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at The Universtiy of Toronto.