CATHERINE TIRR BIOGRAPHY
Biography
Catherine Tirr was born in England and studied at Chelsea School of Art in London. One of her first group exhibitions was at the Royal Academy of Art, London, in 1979, where she was awarded the Stowells Trophy. By 1980 her work was included in a two-person exhibition at the Austen Hayes Gallery, York, England, followed by a one-person exhibition at the Snir I Djupid Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland, and at Akureri Gallery, Akureri, Iceland in that same year.
After relocating to the U.S. on scholarship in 1980, she participated in group shows at the Robert Kidd Gallery, Detroit, the Saginaw Art Museum and the Fischer Gallery, Detroit, followed by a solo exhibition at the Sixth Street Gallery, Royal Oak, Michigan.
By 1983 she was being represented by Anderson O’ Day, London, and was again showing work in England. A works n paper project, in collaboration with Detroit poet Chris Tysch, culminated in a publication by Station Hill Press, entitled “Coat of Arms.”
Her move to New York City was followed by a 1987 group exhibition at the Drawing Center. Both the New York Foundation of the Arts and Materials for the Arts, granted her awards in 1991. An ongoing involvement in shows in New York City include the “Cadavre Exquis” show at The Drawing Center in 1994 and the “Neurotic Art” show at the Artist’s Space in the same year.
Since her recent move to Los Angeles, her work has been included in exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Armand Hammer Museum, and in San Francisco exhibits at Gallery Oboy and Olga Dollar Gallery and the Asyl Gallery, New York.
Artist’s Statement, 2001
In my paintings, I try to suggest more about forms and their relationships and origins than that which is merely evident on the surface.
The many textures and layers that make up the topography of my paintins are built upon the ideas of erosion and displacement – in a way that is similar to how the Earth’s surface is altered by flood plains, slip faults, and shifting plates. The landscape we see is a combination of chance events, relationships and juxtapositions, constantly in flux. Yet the shadow of what was formerly there can still be traced, just as random boulders deposited along a broad moraine suggest the shape and scope of a glacier that is no longer there. It may be long gone from the time in which we view the site, but in the mind’s eye its former presence is still part of the overall composition.
It is this evolution of pattern and the development of form over time that I am interested in capturing.
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