Born and raised in the UK, Kate Downing relocated to the United States in 2020. Drawn to create from an early age, she excelled in art classes, though by the age of 18 she put it behind her for a time. For much of her 20s she worked and traveled around the world, tapping into her own spiritual beliefs and feeding her passion for understanding people of different cultures. It was during the pandemic that she recommitted to her studio practice, enrolling in an online art academy to dust off and enhance her long-dormant skills. Living with a younger brother diagnosed with severe autism made Kate Downing particularly attuned to the enormous power of body language to communicate. These observations, combined with her deep fascination in shared and individual human experience, inform her artistic practice. Using female subjects to convey her own emotions, her paintings become autobiographical; Downing pours herself into the vessel of her models’ flesh, connecting with the viewer on an emotional level by means of charcoal, graphite, acrylic and oils. The loose and airy construction is completely non-confrontational. Instead, the work extends a gentle invitation. An invitation to feel what it is that connects us all, no matter our personal circumstances.