FaB Projects : Kate McDonnell

Media Storm : Kate McDonnell, 2026, Installation [newspapers, ink]

Pop-Up exhibition:
Private View • Thurs 25 June • 7 - 9pm
Sat 27 & Sun 28 June • 12noon - 4pm
Venue • Old Glassworks, 105 Walcot Street, Bath BA1 5BW click for map

What's going on?

FaB and McDonnell invite you to discover the outcomes of the Artist's exploration of relationship between her work and the Old Glassworks’ large industrial space: a flash residency playing with the limits of materials, process, and time…

Why did we choose Kate McDonnell?

Given the opportunity to offer an Artist space to play, team FaB knew that Kate McDonnell would be the perfect Artist. Having seen McDonnell's work grow in scale for a number of years, we're really looking forward to seeing what grows or even takes over the space at the end of a week-long residency in this former garage and glass factory.

Who is Kate McDonnell?

Kate McDonnell is an installation Artist based here in Bath. Her practice explores materiality and process, embodying anxiety through site-specific installations, also sculptural works and drawing.

McDonnell’s artworks provoke feelings first rather than thoughts – a visceral form of communication. She focuses on the physical sensations of uncomfortable emotions, translating them into physical actions that she applies to materials. Each work is a collection of the remnants of these processes. An ongoing theme in her work is creating scale through repetition and her artworks often become feats of endurance played out over time.

Alongside using work-a-day materials like ballpoint pens, marker pens and wax crayons, McDonnell employs found objects such as empty bottles, till receipts, old bedlinens, bread and used greetings cards – things that hold an embodied memory. In so doing she has made works reflecting on alcohol, insomnia, anxiety, isolation and loneliness. She hopes that people recognise something of their own experiences in her work. She says, ‘I find great resonance in Doris Lessing’s observation in The Golden Notebook that ‘I’m scared of being alone in what I feel.'

Last year McDonnell was part of the Slipping the Veil at St Bartholomew the Great, London and created a large installation at Bethlem Museum of the Mind. In 2024 she had two solo exhibitions, Nocturne and Testbed 24, both in Bath.

Previously, McDonnell has had a solo show at The Art House, Wakefield, and group exhibitions at Wells and Chichester Cathedrals, Maximillian Wölfgang in London, and the RWA in Bristol.

Her accolades include the Gilbert Bayes Award, shortlistings for the John Ruskin and New Emergence Art Prizes, longlisting for the Aesthetica Art Prize, and was named an Artist to Watch by ArtConnect.

McDonnell gained an MFA from Bath Spa University in 2018 and previously achieved an MA from Central St. Martins and a BA from De Montfort University.

katemcdonnell.co.uk
insta @katemcdonnellart

Artist Kate McDonnell

Media Storm : Kate McDonnell, 2026, installation detail [newspapers, ink]