Bethany Kohrt is a contemporary artist living and working in the Wiltshire countryside. Her interest is in abstract, decorative forms alongside atmospheric elements of physical landscapes. She works on canvas, working in thick and thin layers that are then scrubbed, sanded, scorched and scraped back to reveal an analogous history of the layers of time, experience and memories.
Bethany studied Fine Art at Camberwell College of Art in London and Newcastle University in England and obtained an Honours Degree in Art History and Theory. Bethany undertook CASS (Contemporary Art) at the Royal College of Art in 2022 and has just completed a two year, full time MA in Fine Art at London art school, Central Saint Martins for which she achieved a Distinction. As part of her MA graduation, Bethany was nominated for the MullenLowe NOVA Award for Creative Talent and was also awarded the Pinsent Masons x CSM Award for Excellence.
“My painting is a visual journey back and forth between internal and external landscapes. I am drawn to the natural landscape - not the topographical elements, or ‘views’ in a moment of time, but rather the wider experience of belonging within that place. My artistic language and internal landscapes are derived from culturally borrowed decorative objects of my childhood in Hong Kong where Chinese antiques, Indonesian and Balinese lamps, as well as indigo dyed textiles formed the visual world that I grew up in. I see the natural world through the lens of these objects, which are a memorialisation of belonging and loss; a type of visual archaeology where memories are embedded in layers of paint and intuitive mark making. I see these symbols of remembrance, personal ancestry and collective grief in my surroundings as expressions of my own internal and external landscapes”.
