ldakers
Date / Time
Date(s) - 02/02/2023 - 28/02/2023
10 h 00 min - 19 h 00 min
Location
GreatArt London
Categories
Kay Kanté started exploring artistic creativity for the first time as therapy, after repetitive strain injury finished her first career. Her introduction to paint was revelatory and the start of an obsession.
Finding encouragement and confidence through local art groups, she quickly found her voice as an artist : capturing moments of ordinary life in local street scenes. People in her paintings are just as important as the scenes they occupy.
Kay paints places she feels a connection to, so most of her paintings reflect micro-history glimpses of life in East London, where she lives.
Kay’s work has been exhibited several times a year since 2015, in group and solo exhibitions, including in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2021) and at the Royal Courts of Justice in Central London (2021 and 2022). She was longlisted for the 2022 Holly Bush Emerging Woman Painter Prize.
A Kay Kanté painting usually includes details that link to both a place and a time: wheelie bins, street markings, buses. Compositions often have strong structure, using the lines of city buildings, street furniture, and sun/shade. Kay works in acrylics (with gloss medium for an oil paint feel), usually from a palette of 3 primary colours and white, giving each painting a sense of unity. Her current collection uses watered heavy body acrylic paints (combining watercolour sensitivity with rapid drying for immediacy).
