Catherine Goodman

New Works

27 February – 5 May 2024

Downtown Los Angeles

‘It’s a serious business, painting. It’s about creating a microcosm of the macrocosm that we’re living in’.

—Catherine Goodman

EXPLORE THE EXHIBITION

For her inaugural solo exhibition in Los Angeles, London-based artist Catherine Goodman presents a new series of monumental abstract paintings, marking a significant progression in the artist’s visual language. Goodman’s characteristically animated surfaces and energetic brushstrokes have long been signatures of her expressionistic landscape paintings, portraits and sketches. Now, as she moves into abstraction, the distinctive vitality of her art takes on a new, immersive power.

Somerset

2023

The Land of Lapis Angels

2023

Night Beekeeper II

2023

Central to Goodman’s artistic process is the act of drawing directly from life, a practice she has maintained every day for decades. This unwavering commitment to drawing underpins a deeply intuitive mode of artmaking that combines her outward physical observations with sensations pulled from her inner imagination and memories of specific places or experiences. Often working across multiple canvases at once, Goodman sees her painting practice as a means of inhabiting the moment.

Blue

2023

Scarlet Shig

2023

‘Painting isn’t performative, it is a live act, and drawing is always the electrical charge that’s running through that.’

—Catherine Goodman

For decades, Goodman has maintained a regular practice of drawing from films, pausing a film for six minutes and completing drawings using ink, pastels and watercolor. The resulting sketches inform the imagery and mark-making of her paintings, including her new abstract canvases on view in the exhibition at Hauser & Wirth. ‘Night beekeeper II’ (2023), takes its inspiration from the 1973 film ‘The Spirit of the Beehive,’ directed by Victor Erice.

Sasha

2023

Burgundy Beekeeper

2023

Girls

2023

In Conversation: Catherine Goodman and Jenelle Porter

On the occasion of the Catherine Goodman's first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, ‘Catherine Goodman. New Works’, we joined the artist and curator and writer Jenelle Porter in conversation.

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Ellie / A Man That Gets Dressed in the Dark

2023 - 2024

Artemis I

2023

From Screen to Sketch: Drawing from Film with Catherine Goodman

Ahead of the exhibition opening, Goodman led a drawing workshop 'Drawing from Film' that engaged participants in playful, six-minute drawing exercises, offering new ways of looking and an opportunity to see through a cinematographer’s point of view.

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Catherine Goodman: In the Studio

Step into the studio with Catherine Goodman as she prepares for her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. From her studio in London, Goodman discusses her latest body of work featuring predominantly abstract works, marking a distinct development for the artist, whose signature dynamic surfaces and energetic brushstrokes will occupy some of her largest canvases to date.

On view in Downtown Los Angeles

‘Catherine Goodman. New Works’ is on view now through 5 May 2024 at Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles. Please visit our location page to plan your visit.

About the Artist

Catherine Goodman

For more than four decades, Catherine Goodman CBE has developed a unique visual language that communicates a powerful visionary response to her lived experience and memory. Goodman’s intensely expressive painting process uses strongly pigmented oil paint, brushwork, oil sticks, drips and washes to create atmospheric and immersive paintings which explore both figuration and abstraction.

Central to Goodman’s artistic process is the act of drawing directly from life, her intimate knowledge of the old master painters and drawing from film, where she immerses in the legends of the modern cinema age. In Goodman’s words, “drawing can bring about a sense of unity and create a portal into other realms of consciousness”. This daily practice roots her mark-making in observation and informs and enriches her paintings.

Catherine Goodman’s role as an educator is integral to her artistic identity. Since graduating from art school, Goodman has been organising drawing classes for the homeless and other community groups, demonstrating a longstanding commitment to social justice in art education. In 2000, this led her to co-establish the Royal Drawing School with HM King Charles III, to address the increasing absence of drawing in art education and to give wider access to disadvantaged students.

Goodman studied at Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts, London, and the Royal Academy Schools, London, where she won the Royal Academy Gold Medal in 1987. Goodman continues in her role as Founding Artistic Director and Academic Board Member of the Royal Drawing School and in 2014 was awarded Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, for her services to arts education. Since 2019, Goodman has served as the Artist Trustee at The National Gallery, London. In 2024, she was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to art, UK.

Her paintings are held in significant private and public collections including the National Portrait Gallery, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, The Rothschild Foundation, and the Royal Collection Trust.

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