Published to accompany Kate Downie’s exhibition Grasslands, presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2026, this catalogue explores the artist’s three year investigation into one of our most overlooked subjects: grass. Through new paintings, drawings and prints, alongside an essay and reflections on her research, the publication considers the remarkable complexity and quiet significance of the landscapes beneath our feet.
About Kate Downie
Born in North Carolina, Kate Downie is one of Scotland’s most respected contemporary painters, celebrated for a practice that moves fluidly between painting, drawing, printmaking and installation. After studying at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, Downie travelled extensively, undertaking residencies and projects in the United States, England, Amsterdam and Paris. Over the past three decades she has built a distinctive body of work rooted in direct engagement with place, landscape and industry, responding intuitively to environments through colour, gesture and mark-making.
