It takes one to know one. Paintings by Kate Waters

Having communally been through a time of great self-reflection - Kate Waters‘s new group of paintings and drawings in an upcoming exhibition at Galerie Voss in Düsseldorf - It takes one to know one - asks the question - who are we? Waters approached choosing her imagery from her vast archive of Photography by initially wanting an exhibition showing imagery of women- asking head-on- who do I think I am?

The subject of female politics has never been the main interest in her work, but, has as in life, a permanent presence, as in -some color’s returning- a Peeping Tom is always somewhere. But more importantly, the young woman is starting a new day, recovered and full of hope. Or in -It takes one to know one- the three girls united in sisterhood, hoops, and denim, hanging around the bumper cars at a fair, resilient girl-power, but somehow feeling they have outgrown the role.

Waters sees all her subjects as important players, in Cinderella - having to work in the hot humid beach bar, in-Cannibals -, boasting posters of female wrestling, Neanderthal sized burgers, beer taps with skulls, and in the dark center a flickering TV. The dazed man at the bar may be thinking- How did we get here-.

More characters are introduced: Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy- the title of a John Le Carré spy novel - telling the true story of a Cambridge, homosexual spy ring of defectors, is the Title of her painting showing a London black-cab discreetly following another down a street in Soho London. The shop in the background is a well-known adult shop where role-playing is encouraged.

A further hand full of inhabitants in the Exhibition are those in the aptly titled painting - the Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover- a Fulhorn of baroque detail - depicting a young man in a bar in Valencia contemplating his future with a twinkle in his eye.

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