Details
| First Name | Janette |
| Last Name | Kerr |
| Username | janettekerr |
| Website | |
| Region | Shetland |
| Disciplines | Painting, Photography, Moving Image |
| Themes | Landscape, Site-specific, Narratives, Environment |
Statement
| Statement | Janette Kerr is a painter deeply embedded in place. She works at the interface between land, sea and historical experience. ‘My paintings represent immediate responses to sound and silences within the landscape around me; they are about movement and the rhythms of sea and wind, swelling and breaking waves, the merging of spray with air, advancing rain and mist, glancing sunlight – elements that seem to be about something intangible. Walking is integral to my practice. My process of making paintings involves extremes and instabilities: peripheries and promontories – places of rapid change and shifts, both physically and meteorologically’. She has worked with archivists, historians, meteorologists and oceanographers – all of which has informed her practice. For the last 14 years, her work has focussed on Shetland and the far north. She travels extensively – to wild sea and weather-scoured places – sailing along the coast of Svalbard in the High Arctic on board a tall ship with a group of international artists, an international residency in Skagastrond in NW Iceland, and to Greenland – living for two months in Oqaatsuut, a remote Inuit settlement. She has a strong track record of initiating/working collaboratively, developing Confusing Shadow with Substance, a film and sound installation in Shetland, and creating a permanent sound walk on Stennes beach in Shetland – both Creative Scotland funded projects. She has also developed several projects with community groups making and installing solargraphic cameras developing sound and image pieces that have been shown in art and heritage centres. |
Biography
| Biography | Janette Kerr – Selected CV 2021-2010 (fuller CV on my website) Royal Scottish Academy Honorary Academician Royal West of England Academician 2011- 2016 President of the Royal West of England Academy Solo Exhibitions 2025 Surge, Kilmorack Gallery, Inverness-shire, Scotland 2024 Virtual ‘The Shed Gallery’ exhibition featured artist 2023 Sea Changes, Clifton Contemporary Gallery, Bristol Open studio 2022 Sladers Yard Contemporary Gallery, Bridport, Dorset Pittenweem Art Festival – invited lead artist, Scotland 2021 Hyperborea: beyond the north wind: Kilmorack Gallery, Inverness-shire, Scotland 2020 Sea States, Cadogan Contemporary, London 2018 Slader’s Yard Gallery, Bridport UK Kilmorak Gallery, Inverness-shire, Scotland Cadogan Contemporary, London UK 2017 Arctic Air: an absolute difficult beauty – RWA Small Gallery, Bristol 2016 An Uncontrollable Force – Cadogan Contemporary Gallery, London 2015 Paintings from the Sea – Cadogan Contemporary Gallery, London New Work from Shetland – Kilmorak Galley, Inverness-shire, Scotland Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour 2014 Meteorological Musings – Cadogan Contemporary, London 2013 Kystmuseet i Øygarden, Bergen, Norway 2012 Marine Research Institute, and Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Bergen, Norway Sixty Degrees North – Cadogan Contemporary, London Sea Drawing – RWA, Bristol 2011 World Meteorological Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland Janette Kerr: Extreme Wave theory – Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland Isles Royal Geographic Society, Kensington, London Janette Kerr: On the far edge, Sir Terry Frost Gallery, King’s School, Worcester Sea drawings – UWE, Bristol 2010 St Giles Gallery, Norwich Group and invited Exhibitions and Projects 2025 Highgate Contemporary Art, London: https://highgateart.com/ International Festival of Terminalia (https://walklistencreate.org) Works on Paper, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol Line/s of Enquiry, Hardwick Gallery, University of Gloucestershire Shetland Gallery, Yell, Shetland Lines of Enquiry, Hardwick Gallery, Cheltenham Terminalia – a provocation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iozdLKCED9E Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour Annual Exhibition (Mall Gallery, London) Royal Scottish Academy Annual, Edinburgh Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize touring exhibition SSA Annual exhibition, Royal Academy of Art, Edinburgh 2024 Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay Kilmorack Gallery, By Beauly, Inverness-shire Royal Scottish Academy Annual show Clifton Contemporary Gallery, Bristol 2023 Kilmorack Gallery, By Beauly, Inverness-shire, Scotland Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Royal Society of Marine Artists, Mall Gallery, London Annual Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol New English Art Club Annual, Mall Galleries, London From the Mountains to the Sea – Beaux Art, Bath Kwikn – Kilmorack Gallery, By Beauly, Inverness-shire Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 2022 Discerning Eye, London Kilmorack Gallery, Inverness-shire ARTeries Gallery, Glasgow Annual Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 2021 Confusing Shadow with Substance: collaborative installation; Janette Kerr & Jo Millett: 6 locations in Shetland & Scotland (2021-22) Sladers Yard, Bridport, 4 person exhibition – May-July Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 2020 Cadogan Contemporary: 40 Year Anniversary Exhibition – July Landlinks/Groundwork Walk project: http://groundworks.org.uk/wp/landlinks/ Somerset Reacquainted – Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury, November – January 2021 Annual Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 2019 John Davis Gallery, Pre-Christmas & New Year Exhibition; Moreton-in-Marsh UK 30 Nov – 11 Jan Igniting Sight: contemporary artists inspired by Turner, Slader’s Yard, Bridport Annual Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol Wales Contemporary 2019 Waterfront Gallery, Milford Haven, and Mall Galleries, London Black Swan Open, Frome Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Kilmorak Gallery, By Beauly, Inverness-shire, Scotland 2018 Currents: Ways of seeing water, Slader’s Yard Contemporary Gallery, Bridport Annual Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy Fragile Latitudes, The Step Gallery, Arizona State University, USA Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh A Case for Place – interdisciplinary project with Land 2, Steel Rooms Gallery, Brigg 2017 Confusing Shadow with Substance – installation Janette Kerr & Jo Millett, Shetland Museum Janette Kerr & Malcolm Ashman – Andelli Art, Wells, Somerset Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour 2003-2020 Royal West of England Academy Annual Autumn Exhibition, Bristol 2014-2020 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland 2016 Radiance – Sladers Yard, Bridport Scottish Artists inspired by sea – Kilmorak Gallery, Inverness-shire, Scotland 2012-16 Royal Academy Summer Show, London 2014 The Power of the Sea: Making waves in British Art – RWA, Bristol 20×20 – Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland Small works – Hilton Fine Art, Bath Birmingham & Beyond: 200 Year Celebration – RBSA, Birmingham Hilton Fine Art, Bath Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland A2 Gallery, Wells Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour 2013 Sladers Yard, Bridport Small Works – Cadogan Contemporary, London The Wilder Shores of Love – Hilton Fine Art, Bath Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour Works on Paper – Cadogan Contemporary, London 30th Anniversary Exhibition – Cadogan Contemporary, London Abstraction – Cadogan Contemporary, London Open Studios, Somerset 2010 Air Gallery, Wells, Somerset Hampshire Art Fair Hampshire Open Painting Exhibition – RWA, Bristol
Awards 2024 Kathleen Conboy Landscape Award 2019 Landscape choice, Black Swan Open exhibition, Frome Residencies since 2010 2022 Greenland – Oqatsuut 2020 Nes International art residency, Skagaströnd, NW Iceland 2016 Arctic Circle Programme expedition http://www.thearcticcircle.org/# 2012 Meteorological Institute, Bergen, Norway Brisons Veor, Cape Cornwall Shetland Fishing stations – research project 2010 The Booth, Shetland Community projects – exhibition 2022/3 Touring of Sl0w Time – Solargraphic project initiated during lock-down: Black Swan, Frome and East Quay, Watchett 2023 Greenland/Shetland solargraphic project installation: Mareel Art Centre, Lerwick and Unst Heritage Centre, Shetland. Publications/Essays/Interviews 2024 Channel 5 features artist – Shetland – Scotland’s wondrous isle 2023 Hendrix Gin featured artist in promotional film 2020 https://landscaperesearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/LRE-90-FINAL-032.pdf (Arctic landscape painting) https://floatingcircle-rwa.org/2020/06/09/artists-in-lockdown-janette-kerr-prwa/ http://groundworks.org.uk/wp/in-conversation-with-janette-kerr/ 2019 https://www.creativeboom.com/features/janette-kerr/ https://www.lux-review.com/janette-kerr-north/ https://www.moderdy.org/artists 2018 ‘Night representation and indeterminacy: night in landscape painting’, Landscape Research 2017 ‘Poised between land and far haaf’, New Shetlander No 281 Interview: Radio Shetland July 20th re Confusing Shadow with Substance installation Ofi Issue 52 Arctic Special Online: http://en.calameo.com/books/00473905900e81dd8869f Rogue waves: Anatomy of a Monster, M Olagnon & J Kerr, Bloomsbury 2015 Anatomie curieuse des vagues scélérates, M Olagnon & J Kerr, Quae, France Transcan Vol 10, Australia Interview: Made in Bristol TV 1st Dec re Arctic Expedition 2014 The Power of the Sea, Dr Janette Kerr & Prof Christina Payne (co-ed), Samson & Co. 2011 An Eye for a Storm: The paintings of Janette Kerr, Urthona 28, Melita Press Janette Kerr – film by Mark Parry, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iU9vh9YTA0 2010 Extremes and Instabilities, catalogue accompanying exhibition |
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