Katy Moran

Katy Moran (b 1975) makes intense and sensuous paintings which, though modest in size, have a vitality and atmosphere that immediately engages the imagination and provokes an emotive response.

Moran’s pictures hover between abstraction and figuration, and she paints until a recognisable form or desired sensation appears. Chance and surprise are all part of the process: she incorporates splashes and flaws, using a variety of methods to arrive at the finished piece, such as paring back the surface by washing off layers, or framing a particular section of a work. She paints in series, fitting each new canvas into an assembled group, and sometimes working on three or four canvases at a time.

Her interest in collage and found materials – including the way she has begun reusing old canvases in her studio – has led her to think not just about the subject pictured within a painting, but the ‘thingness’ of the painting itself, as an object on the wall. Her use of found frames reinforces this and deliberately plays with the interior design styles and tastes of a previous era.