Kate Montgomery NUITS BLANCHES
Spring Garden, 2024
casein on birch panel 38 × 30 cm
KATE MONTGOMERY
“The paintings may look like stories but do not tell them” Kate Montgomery says about her paintings.
In her new exhibition, ‘Nuits Blanches’, moonlight suffuses liminal spaces, sometimes private ,sometimes public, sometimes juxtaposed. Women and girls inhabit these spaces, reading, dreaming, sewing, painting, preparing for unspecified adventures.
There are stories hinted at, but they are for the viewer to finish: suspended, mysterious, shrouded in moonlit magic. Family stories, relationships simple or complex, weave through this incandescent universe both familiar and unknown.
Beyond the narratives, the eye unravels layerings of jewel-like patterns inspired by textile and wallpaper, giving the paintings a richness and density that satisfies long scrutiny: a joyful pleasure in an age of fast consumption, superficiality and short attention span.
The influence of Persian and Mughal miniatures and cloistered medieval scenes is evident, speaking to roots in traditions that Montgomery absorbed as a student at The Royal College of Art when it was housed
in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her domestic scenes recall Dutch interiors –women at work and children at play. Her chosen materials too are deeply traditional, casein and egg tempera giving her work a flat luminescent glow. Even her characters are born from painterly tradition, developed through a practice of incessant sketching. Wherever she goes Montgomery is constantly observing, on trains, in stations and landscapes.
Dress and domesticity are integral elements in her art. Fashion reflects personal identity and social evolution, Montgomery says. It concerns everybody, we all wear clothes. Domesticity also is a constant, confronted with a changing culture where traditional values are being re-examined, upturned, shelved.
Montgomery’s work is reminiscent of Paula Rego, Leonora Carrington or Louise Bourgeois in its sensibility to evanescent emotions and fleeting situations, suffused with tension and unease. Universal and important, it is an enticement to deep reflection, suspending belief and time.
Claudia Barbieri Childs
Blue Hour, 2025
casein on birch panel 60 × 47 cm
Drawing you Drawing, 2025
casein on birch panel 26 × 30 cm
Demeter’s Garden, 2025
casein on birch panel 38 × 30 cm
Tiled Pool, 2025
casein on birch panel 47 × 60 cm
Walled Garden, 2024
casein on birch panel 38 × 30 cm
Night Painter, 2024
oil on board 30 × 38 cm
The Heavens’ Embroidered Cloths, 2024 oil on board 60 × 47 cm
Winter Fair, 2024
casein on birch panel 38 × 30 cm
Night Gate, 2024
casein on birch panel 47 × 60 cm
Dress Rehearsal, 2025
casein on birch panel 47 × 60 cm
Chinoiseries, 2024
casein on birch panel 38 × 30 cm
Kate Montgomery
https://www.katemontgomery.co.uk/
Represented by Long & Ryle Gallery London
https://longandryle.com/
Education, Awards and Scholarships
1992 MA (Fine Art) with distinction, Royal College of Art, London. The Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture Prize, Royal College of Art Degree Show, London
1996 Elected member of The London Group
1988 Egerton Coghill Landscape Painting Prize, University of Oxford
Fine Art BFA (Oxon), Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University
1986 Geoffrey Rhoades Commemorative Bursary, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford
Casberd Scholarship, St. John’s College, University of Oxford
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Nuits Blanches, (forthcoming) solo show Long & Ryle Gallery London
2023 Pattern Book, solo show Long & Ryle Gallery London
On Summery Afternoons Campden Gallery, Chipping Campden
2018 Dreamed House, solo exhibition, Long & Ryle, Pimlico, London, UK
2009 Kate Montgomery, solo exhibition, Cadogan Contemporary Gallery, London, UK
2000 Kate Montgomery, solo exhibition, Cadogan Contemporary Gallery, London, UK
1998 Kate Montgomery, solo exhibition, Cadogan Contemporary Gallery, London, UK
1996 Kate Montgomery, solo exhibition, Cadogan Contemporary Gallery, London, UK
1994 Kate Montgomery, solo exhibition, Cadogan Contemporary Gallery, London, UK
1993 Kate Montgomery, solo exhibition, Galerie B, Föhr, Germany
1990 Kate Montgomery, solo show of paintings and painted furniture The Old Fire Station Oxford
Selective Group Exhibitions
2024 Sonnets Summer Collective, Le Salon Vert, Carouge, Geneva
A Spirit Inside ,work from The Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College & The Ingram Collection. Compton Verney
2022 Inner Space collective exhibition, Sarah Wiseman Gallery, Oxford
Revelation collective exhibition Long & Ryle, Pimlico, London.
2021 Golden Hour Summer collective exhibition Le Salon Vert Carouge Switzerland
Primavera, collective exhibition, Long & Ryle, Pimlico, London,
2020 L’appel de la Montagne, Winter Collective exhibition., Le Salon Vert Saanen, Switzerland
Beyond other Horizons, collective exhibition, British Council, Iasi, Romania
2019 Quartet, collective exhibition, Open Eye Gallery Edinburgh, UK
Moon Gazing, collective exhibition, Fitzroy House, Lewes, UK
2016 A Winter’s Tale, collective exhibition, Long & Ryle, Pimlico, London, UK
Bijou, collective exhibition, Candida Stevens Fine Art, Chichester, UK
Into The Woods, collective exhibition, St. Anne’s Galleries, Lewes, UK
2015 Kind of Blue, group exhibition, Candida Stevens Fine Art, Chichester, UK
Good Figures, collective exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London, UK
Good Figures, collective exhibition, Jerwood Gridshell, West Sussex, UK
2011 Sussex Landscapes, collective exhibition, St Anne’s Galleries, Lewes, UK
2009 At Home, New Paintings by Kate Montgomery & Theresa Whitfield, St. Anne’s Galleries, Lewes, UK
2006 The Painted Nude, The Chambers Gallery London
2002 Four, The London Group: Kate Montgomery, David Gluck, Anthony Whishaw, Peter
Clossick, The Walk Gallery, London, UK
1992 Royal College of Art degree show
1989 Pulchritude, exhibition of drawings by Kate Montgomery & Elizabeth Price, Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
1988 Degree Show, Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art. University of Oxford. Landscape Painting Show, Bodleian Library. University of Oxford.
Open Exhibitions
2024 Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (Also 2013/2010/2001/ 2000/1999/1997/1996)
2023 The Art of Biodiversity, mixed show Star Brewery Gallery Lewes
2022 Sussex Contemporary, Brighton Open, mixed show (also 2022/2006)
2018 The Threadneedle Prize Exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London, UK (also, 2014/, 2010)
The Discerning Eye, The Mall Galleries, London UK (Also 2017,2016,2014,2013/98/97)
2005 The Chichester Open, Goodwood, UK
Work in private and institutional collections
Vivian Duffield; St. John’s College, Oxford; Princess Margarita of Romania; Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge; HRH King Charles III; The Cromwell Hospital, London; Elizabeth Esteve-Coll; The Museum of Youth Culture, London; Jack Sheppard; The Procreate Archive; Kevin Kwan
Publications and Online Media
2024 Review of Sussex Arts Autumn issue – cover image and illustrated interview with Imogen Lycett Green https://rosamagazine.co.uk/into-the-labyrinth/
2024
2023
Observer Review of shows at Compton Verney by Laura Cumming https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/apr/07/the-taotie-a-spirit-inside-landscapeand-imagination-review-three-superb-shows-mark-20-years-of-compton-verney
Artylist Sussex Artists by Claudia Barbieri Shields https://artlyst.com/features/sussex-artistsspotlight-spring-2024-claudia-barbieri/#:~:text=Sussex%2C%20a%20tranquil%20and%20 moody,his%20craft%20workshops%20in%20Ditchling
Online interview Selvedge Magazine https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/pattern-book
Online interview Faire Magazine https://www.fairepress.com/journal/kate-montgomery
Online interview FLO London https://www.flolondon.co.uk/all-posts/in-conversation-withkate-montgomery
Print Media
2022/23
Absolute Sussex editorial and colour reproduction.
2018/23 Artists & Illustrators: interview and colour reproduction.
2018 Country Life: exhibition preview and colour reproduction.
World Of Interiors: exhibition preview.
Women In Art (WIA): online exhibition preview and colour reproduction.
2009 The London Paper, September : review of The Threadneedle Price exhibition and image
2002 The Financial Times, February: review of The London Group at The Walk Gallery, William Packer.
2000 Temenos Academy Review, Spring: two paintings reproduced; work discussed by Keith Critchlow with notes by the artist.
1997 The Sunday Times, November: review of The Discerning Eye, Cosmo Landesman. Paintingb&w reproduction
The Independent, November: mentioned in review of The Discerning Eye, Andrew Lambirth
1995 Art Review, February: one of ten artists selected and discussed by Nicola Shane. Colour reproduction.
1994 The London Evening Standard, May: preview of Cadogan Contemporary Show. Colour reproduction.
1992 The Spectator: review of RCA degree show, Giles Auty. Painting reproduced in colour.
Selected use of paintings and design work
2022 Poetry Book Cover, Bloodaxe Books, Jane Griffiths Little Silver
2019 Record Cover, Tapete Records, The Catenary Wires, Til The Morning
2001 Commission with London Contemporary Art, Paintings for Royal Carribean’s new fleet of cruise liners
1997 Children’s Book illustrations for Razia Queen of India, Hood Hood Books, London
1992 Surface pattern for dinner table china, Royal Worcester
Carpet design commission, Conoco headquarters, Warwick
Textile commission, Edinburgh Weavers
Published to coincide with the Exhibition
Kate Montgomery: Nuits Blanches
26 June – 25 July, 2025
All works © Kate Montgomery
Catalogue © Long & Ryle, 2025
Photography by Andre Lichtenberg
Design by Graham Rees Design
Printed by Five Castles
INSIDE FRONT COVER
Tiled Pool, 2025
illustrated fully on page 11
INSIDE BACK COVER
Spring Garden, 2025
illustrated fully on page 2
