Kate Gottgens, Evening Sorcery, 2025

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oil on canvas

140 x 140 cm
55 1/8 x 55 1/8 in
framed: 142 x 142 x 5 cm

In this painting, a female figure with glowing red eyes and an almost blue skin commands the scene, radiating a supernatural energy. The eerie, unnatural light surrounding her heightens the...

In this painting, a female figure with glowing red eyes and an almost blue skin commands the scene, radiating a supernatural energy. The eerie, unnatural light surrounding her heightens the sense that she exists in a liminal space—hovering between reality and something more otherworldly.
The composition is rooted in one of Kate’s personal photographs, with her husband in the water providing the setting. However, the girl and the jumping figure were drawn from separate images, layered into the scene. By the time she began this piece, her approach had taken on a more intentional feminist drive, crafting female figures who seize control of the narrative. This theme recurs throughout her work—enigmatic, self-possessed women who are both powerful and playful, shaping their own worlds. Though she resists being confined by gender politics—insisting on the freedom to create without constraint—an awareness of these dynamics is ever present in the back of her mind.

This evolution unfolds across the series. In earlier works like Fire Pools and Summoned by the Tides, women by the water exude a quiet mindfulness. But as the series progressed, their presence became more commanding, culminating in Dusk and Venus, where the emergence of the female figure feels almost like a literal birth. The transformation is organic, as if Venus materializes before our eyes. With ’Twilight’, the arrival of a young girl, a clear narrative arc takes shape—a story of becoming, of power awakening within the paintings.

Darkening Dusk: Kate Gottgens

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Kate Gottgens South Africa, b. 1965