‘Road Trip‘ is an exhibition of new work by Kathy Prendergast at the Kerlin Gallery. Having studied at the National College for Art and Design in Dublin and the Royal College of Art in London, Prendergast has gone on to present her award winning work throughout Europe, the US and Asia. Although working primarily in sculpture, her latest exhibition at the Kerlin Gallery, showcases a series of paintings which explore the geographic landscapes of Minnesotan roadmaps.
Prendergast has often used cartography in her work and has done so to critical acclaim. By physically painting onto actual maps in her latest series, Prendergast reimagines roadmaps of Minnesota, a state known for its diverse landscape with over 10,000 lakes.
On one hand, Prendergast’s works are a study of structure and composition, utilising gridded patterns to colour-block the landscape, akin to the neoplastic abstract work ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie‘ (1942-3) by Piet Mondrian, which captures the rhythm and movement of Broadway in a series of lines and blocks of primary colours composited to resemble an aerial view of Manhattan.
On the other hand, Prendergast’s works are an exploration of form and boundaries, as the artist creates her own boundary lines from which she develops her paintings. In doing so, Prendergast produces her very own multicolour choropleth maps, where she assigns a colour to newly-defined sections of each map, not based on statistical values but rather on areas of her own choosing.
Prendergast reinterprets the landscape to produce her own abstract roadmaps. In these maps, she does not include any of the typical signs, symbols, or legends of the source material – DeLorme’s Minnesota Atlas & Gazetteer. In doing so, the artist addresses issues such as identity and power, as the geographical demarkations are taken away from the physical landscape. However, she does leave the indication of scale and the coordinates on the neatline. Using these references, one can find the original locations of Prendergast’s reimagined abstract landscapes.
‘Road Trip’ is running from 29 May – 10 July 2021 at the Kerlin Gallery.
To see more of Kathy’s work visit her Instagram.