Hosting artists on a university campus is essential for the students to be able to interact with and work collaboratively with those in the art world.  AIU would like to introduce award-winning artist, Kate Daudy, to our community. 

Kate Daudy’s work celebrates the joy of human connection and unwavering faith in its potential. Based in London, Daudy works through a variety of media to manifest complex ideas and theories about the universe. She believes in the power of art to translate into visual form emotions and ideas recognizable yet unrealized in everyday life. 

Daudy began to explore these questions using a practice inspired by ancient Chinese literati tradition. Her bas relief works represented the chronic impermanence of humanity and fleeting emotions. Installations included city-wide projects in Manchester, New York, and Jordan. The interaction between text and place was also explored by Daudy through a commissioned map of London she produced for Selfridges in 2017. 

Communication is at the center of Daudy’s practice. Based on her travels in the Middle East and Europe, the artist inscribed and embroidered a UNHCR tent with the words of refugees to share their message with people around the world. The piece, ‘Am I my Brother’s Keeper?’ has since been exhibited at venues including St Paul’s Cathedral, London, Manchester Art Gallery, and BIAS Palermo, Italy. 

Described as possessing ‘an intellectual curiosity which is infectious’ by art historian Dr. Rebecca Daniels, Daudy’s practice is based on research and collaboration. During her tenancy as artist-in-resident at the Saatchi Gallery, London, she collaborated with Egyptologists at the University of Oxford to respond to the blockbuster exhibition, ‘Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh’. Her accompanying exhibition, ‘It Wasn’t That at All’ (2019-2020), attracted critical acclaim. 

Increasingly, Daudy’s practice has explored the central themes of communication and connection in more permanent iterations. Her most recent exhibition, WONDERCHAOS (Sep – Oct 2021) at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park features her inaugural large-scale sculpture, P O R T A L (2021). The exhibition is in collaboration with Nobel-prize-winning scientist, Kostya Novoselov, and fuses disciplines including art, science, philosophy, and language to explore the dual universal concepts of chaos and harmony. 

Daudy has upcoming exhibitions in Spain, Russia, and Vietnam. She has recently been named a ‘Visionary’ by Louis Vuitton as part of their Louis 200 campaign which will see her specially designed trunk travel the world before being auctioned for charity by Sotheby’s in December 2022. 

Daudy, along with a special guest, Nobel prize-winning artist, Kostya Novoselov, will present “At the Violet Hour”, a large-scale art installation on the AIU campus in March.