A new solo exhibition of paintings by Sheffield artist, Kate Jacob is the first exhibition of the year.
Titled “How to knit a nebula”, this will be Mura Ma’s first exhibition of 2024.
In How to knit a nebula Jacob articulates through painting her attempts to trace the voids, space, and places of loss and memory. A nebular, a giant cloud of cosmic dust and gas, is the former site of a star, but also its birthplace; a fitting description of the metaphysical time and space Jacob is reaching for in her painting.
Jacob uses a material process to knit together fragments of being, imagining the effects of time and motion inside and outside the body. It’s a world of broken, hazy lines and shapes that rise and fall allowing us to exist in both the intimate and infinite realm.
“I make paintings and drawings that are investigative, working with ideas we see as abstract but are as real as the physical world we live in. In colour, mark, shape and gesture I find the fluidity and freedom to convey those spaces, trying to get to the bottom of something not always known; being fully aware and totally unsure”.
Working in acrylic and ink the work is as accidental and playful, as it is constructed and considered. Pastel colours wrestle with bright popping neon and muddy greys. A mass of marks sits amongst unpopulated space; pattern, colour, and lines repeat and jump from painting to painting. A lightness of touch prevails; washed over, thinned out glazes set against thick opaque glossy marks that are applied using whatever is to hand.
Find out more at Mura Ma