Katie Pratt to take up Fellowship at Winchester School of Art

One of Britain's most successful young artists, Katie Pratt, winner of the 2001 Jerwood Painting Prize, has been awarded an AHRB (Arts and Humanities Research Board) Fellowship at Winchester School of Art Fine Art Painting Department.

Katie, who is a graduate of Winchester School of Art, will be based at the School over the next three years, in a studio of her own, working with students and academics.

Katie was the youngest ever recipient of the £30,000 Jerwood Prize, the most prestigious of the country's awards for painting. Previous winners have included Craigie Aitchison, and Prunella Clough.

Katie makes abstract paintings that initially appear gestural but, she says, "On closer inspection a thin web of marks and dashes that describe the phenomena of the paint's movement give a clue that activity is a masquerade for thought." Her paintings begin with a dynamic action: a pouring, splashing or hurling of paint. "For me, this beginning is the ironic antithesis of my approach to painting, which is anything but expressive, and rejects any pleasure or beauty that may be perceived to emerge from the paint itself.

"But," she adds, "the resultant anarchic wash and lumps of colour provide me with a forum for thinking and theorizing through the pursuit of painting on, and making sense of, the chaotic ground."

During her time at Winchester School of Art she intends to create several series of paintings, using the opportunity to work outside the confines of commercial deadlines. She will also be fully contributing to the work of the School, through teaching, collaboration with academics and students, including workshops for students and the public, and her work will be exhibited in the prestigious Winchester Gallery.