Preview
6th October 2016 / 6pm – 8pm / FREE
Exhibition
7th October – 14th November 2016

Paddy Killer has been drawing faces and figures on fabrics for many years – most of them life-size. Those portrayed range from the gods of Ancient Greece to herself and, most recently, Tim Peake.
Her Maxim: ‘Anything you can do on paper you can do on fabric, but with the added beauty of texture’ is well known to many who know her. Her work is based on research and she uses drawing and painting techniques, along with machine embroidery, to add an extra 3-Dimensionality to some works – humour is often present. She draws on anything, silk, glass, wood, plates, as well as paper for book illustration. Many think she makes hats, but she has not made an “Art” hat since 1993! Although Paddy uses the computer for research and planning, she fabricates all the work by hand (even the frames.)

Originally from Halifax, West Yorkshire, Paddy graduated from Birmingham Poly and worked for haute-couture house Belville Sassoon in London. She then migrated to Montreal before returning to the UK to live in Newcastle, where she has been ever since.

“Whilst embroidery is no longer seen as fronting the cutting edge of contemporary practice, it is still alive and re-inventing itself and Killer is one of its leading practitioners. She is uncomfortable with the rigid categorisation of art practice; pointing out material anomalies where, in Western Art, stitched or drawn textile is considered craft but oil painted textile (canvas) is fine art. When you consider her recent work it is easy to understand why.”
Artist, writer & lecturer Paul Scott writing about Paddy’s work in 2006

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