Kate Street
Biography
Nationality: British
Lives and works in Southsea
Drawn to the physicality and tactile immediacy of analogue publications, my practice engages deeply with pre-digital print culture: its textures, imperfections, and the quiet evidence of time and handling. I’m interested in the afterlives of printed matter: how discarded or obsolete imagery can be reanimated to suggest new, often ambiguous narratives. Working across collage and sculpture, I treat found images and objects as collaborators, allowing them to shape the development of each piece.
As Nicolas Bourriaud notes in Postproduction, “The artist is no longer someone who creates from scratch, but someone who reshuffles available forms.” This sensibility informs my methodology. I work with materials sourced from vintage hobby guides, agricultural manuals, erotica, and domestic or industrial detritus. Through dissecting and reassembling them into unfamiliar visual structures I explore slippages between figuration and abstraction, desire and discipline, nature and artifice.
Fragments from printed pages are reconstructed through my Frankenstein-like approach to collage, forming uncanny hybrids that are both familiar and disquieting. These are often combined with sculptural elements such as clamps, zips, hooks, and hair extensions to introduce tension and deepen the material and psychological charge of the work. Materiality is central to my practice. My pieces are rarely framed in traditional ways, instead pinned, clamped, or restrained directly to the wall, creating a sense of containment or resistance. Contrasting metal against skin-like paper, softness interrupted by industrial parts, I aim to intensify a tactile encounter.
Ultimately, my practice is an act of reorientation. In an age of weightless digital imagery, I foreground the handled, the damaged, the repurposed. These works carry the traces of their histories while proposing new and unresolved meanings.
Education
2024 HEA Fellowship in Arts Education, University for the Creative Arts
2002 - 2004 MA Fine Art Painting, Royal College of Art, London
1998 - 2001 BA (Hons) Fine Art Painting, Winchester School of Art
Selected Exhibitions
2024
LESS Contemporary Collage Festival: Skovgaard Museum, Denmark
Disturb The Logic: TondoCosmic, London
Paperwork: Newhaven Art Projects, Sussex
Give Away Your Relics: Herbert Reed, Canterbury (co-curated with Cecelia Bonilla)
The Invisible Grid: Five Years Gallery, London
MKTPLC: Plop, London
Goth in a Landscape: Aberystwyth University, Wales
Seeing Red: Chapel Art Studios, Andover
Air Open: Air Gallery, Manchester
Foraged & Forged: spudWORKS, New Forest (joint solo show)
2023
Assembly Line: They Come They Sit They Go, London
Twenty Years: Union Gallery London
Multiple Universe: Union Gallery London and Foyer Gallery UCA Farnham
The Cutting Room: Leeds Arts University
Weirder Science: Artsy, curated by Karen S David
To Be Seen: Artsy, curated by Greg Rook
2022
Assembly Line: Manchester Contemporary, Manchester (Nov)
Horror Show: Somerset House, London (Oct - Feb 2023)
Barbarians at the Gate: SuperRare Spaces, curated by Greg Rook (Blackbird and Rook Contemporary)
If These Walls Could Talk: Private Residence, London NW5
2021
Vexations: Imperial College, London
AFTER_image: Blyth Gallery, London
I Didn’t Lick it: Bruton Museum and other locations, Bruton, Somerset
Pretty Ugly: Thameside Studios, London
Life on Venus: Tub Gallery, London
2020
Select Dream: Old Knight & Lee Department Store, Southsea
Touch Me: Curated by Veronika Neukirch (Online Exhibition)
Dance First, Think Later: General Practice, Lincoln
Nothing ‘is’ Immediate: Art Space Portsmouth, Portsmouth (Date TBC)
Housebound: Chapel Arts Studios, Andover (Online Exhibition)
Viral: Kyle Marks Gallery, Calgary (Online Exhibition)
Greenness is a Kind of Grief: Y.A.R.D. Projects, Brighton (Online Exhibition)
2019
Allhallowtide: Art Space Portsmouth, Portsmouth
Heimweh: Art Space Portsmouth, Portsmouth
2018
Pint Size: Brewery Tap Gallery, Folkestone
Open Call: Atlas House Gallery, Ipswich
When Our Lips Speak Together: James Hockey Gallery, UCA Farnham
2017
Revolve:R: Hours gallery, Bristol
2016
Pink is a Problem: MAKE Space, Portsmouth
2013
In Dreams: The Cob Gallery, London
Then, Now and After: University of Brighton, Brighton
Pneu: Electro Studios Project Space, St. Leonards-on-Sea
2012
Mererid: Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales
Polemically Small: Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham
2011
She Devil: MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy
Slapstick to Horror: Touring Show Reel (Latitude Festival and Whitstable Biennale)
The Future is Now: Torrance Art Museum, California
The Secret Language of Flowers: Andipa Gallery, London
2010
Nature is the Church of Satan: Touring Show Reel (Latitude Festival and Whitstable Biennale)
2009
Flower Power: Villa Giulia, CRAA Centro Ricerca Arte Attuale, Italy
Drawing Lines: Schuebbe Projects, Düsseldorf, Germany
Darkness Visible: The Belltable, Limerick, Ireland
The Space Between: St Pancras Crypt, London
Angels of Perversity: Cross Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Mixing Memory and Desire: Villa Fabri, Trevi, Italy
Darkness Visible: Cavan Museum, Cavan, Ireland (Touring)
2008
Little Death: Nettie Horn Gallery, London (Solo Show)
Darkness Visible: Galway Arts Centre, Ireland (Touring)
Et Pendant Ce Temps: Nettie Horn Gallery, London
Sex & Witchcraft: Transition Gallery, London
2007
Wintry: Lounge Gallery, London
Beauhemia: Nettie Horn Gallery, London
2006
Grotto: Studio 1.1 Gallery, London
The Celeste Art Award: The Well, Old Truman Brewery, London
2005
The Hollow Salon: Hollow Contemporary, London
New Romantic: The Hospital Gallery, Covent Garden, London
Over Mensen en de Dinge (Of People and Things): Museum Z33, Hasselt Triennial, Belgium
Young Masters: 148a St. John Street, London
2004
From Here to Eternity (and Back Again): Generator Projects, Dundee
Careful What You Wish For: Seven Seven Gallery, London
2003
Don't You Forget About Me: Studio Voltaire, London
2001
Dis/Order(?): The Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth (Solo Show)
Curatorial Projects
2024
Give Away Your Relics: Herbert Reed, Canterbury (co-curated with Cecelia Bonilla)
2021
AFTER_image: Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, London (Sept - Oct)
40 Years of Art Space Portsmouth (ASP and Aspex Portsmouth archives): ASP, Portsmouth
2020
Select Dream: Old Knight & Lee Department Store, Southsea
Greenness is a Kind of Grief: Y.A.R.D. Projects, Brighton (Online Exhibition)
Inertia For Superior Souls: Bargehouse, Oxo Tower, London
2019
Allhallowtide: Art Space Portsmouth, Portsmouth
No Fit State: Asylum Space, Peckham
Heimweh: Art Space Portsmouth, Portsmouth
2013
Species of Spaces: The Big Screen at Latitude Festival
2012
Animated Abstractions: The Big Screen at Latitude Festival
2007
The Joy: Nettie Horn Gallery, London
2006
Second Nature: Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, London
2004
Substance Abuse: The Chambers Gallery, London
Art Fairs
2009
Pulse Art Fair: New York - Nettie Horn Gallery
2007
Year 07: County Hall - London - Nettie Horn Gallery
Aqua Art Fair: Miami - USA - Nettie Horn Gallery
Awards and Publications
Publication: Horror Show: Somerset House exhibition catalogue, 2023
Publication: SHE DEVIL - Studio Stefania Miscetti, Italy, 2020
Publication: Revolve:R - Edition 3 (Spring 2020)
Publication: Revolve:R - Edition 2 (Summer 2017)
Publication: Circa Magazine - Issue 126 (Winter 2008)
Publication: Darkness Visible (GAC catalogue) 2008
Publication: Garageland Magazine - Spring 2008 (Supernatural Issue)
Publication: Critical Friend - Number 7 - August 2007
Publication: Celeste Art Prize - A Survey of Painting in the UK - 2006
Publication: Among Artists & Organisations - Limburg Platform Beeldende Kunsten - 2006
Publication: Over de Mensen en de Dingen - Autumn 2005
Publication: Crossfields issue 1 - Summer 2005
Publication: ARC (RCA journal) Spring issue - 2004
Publication: Twenty Years of the Aspex Gallery - 2002
Award: Celeste Art Prize (Finalist) - May 2006
Award: Neville Burston Memorial - Royal College of Art - June 2004
Award: National Grid Transco (Runner-up) - June 2004
Residencies
2011
Artist's Studio Residency: Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales
2010
Helsinki International Artist's Program: Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland
2007
Summer Residency Award: Scottish Sculpture Workshop - Aberdeenshire
Commissions
2024
Portsmouth Creates ‘We Shine’ festival (film with soundscape)
spudWORK’s youth group commission (ACE funded)
2021
Blyth Gallery 20th anniversary ‘Vexations’ digital print (Imperial College London)
2020
Portsmouth Creates ‘We Believe’ Arts Trail (digital collage)
Collections
The David Roberts Collection UK
Private Collections in Europe and USA
Current Employment
University for the Creative Arts Farnham – Senior Lecturer
Year 1 Pathway Leader BA Fine Art
Email: katestreet85@hotmail.com
Mobile: 07779 443292