Jill Tate UK, b. 1983

Jill Tate (b. 1983) lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. She received a 1st Class BA (Hons) in Contemporary Photographic Practice from Northumbria University in 2005.

From the architecture we inhabit to the building blocks of reality, her work surveys the visible and invisible structures that shape our shared and personal space. Jill Tate is interested in our relationship to ‘home’ at difference levels, such as the mind, the houses we inhabit and our shared planet. The place we call home can feel like a sanctuary or a prison, whether it is made of bricks or brain cells, and this dichotomy is an undercurrent in the sparsely furnished environments that she portrays.

Each painting begins as a scale model, which the artist lights and photograph to produce reference images. She uses natural earth pigments to evoke the literal and metaphysical ground from which everything arises and returns. Light plays a crucial role in her work, illuminating form and offering hope through the darkness. The decision to use a monochromatic colour palette relates to the underlying unity of all things - as the temporary arrangement of energy is experienced as solid matter, similarly a scene can emerge from an arrangement of paint.

After establishing herself as a professional architectural photographer, the focus of her artwork shifted towards painting, which has formed the core of her practice since 2017. In 2021 Jill was awarded an Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant for Degrees of Freedom, followed by a DYCP grant for Groundwork in 2022.She has recently exhibited at The Sunday Painter, London; OHSH Projects, London; Unit 1 Gallery, London; BALTIC Gateshead and Hastings Contemporary. Jill is enrolled on the Turps Correspondence Course 2022-23..