Katherine Gili @ Canary Wharf Visual Art

Well-regarded for her sculptures in mild steel, this exhibition, Sparks Fly, traces Katherine Gili’s creativity and skill in using this heavy industrial material over five decades. She was a student of Sir Anthony Caro at Saint Martin’s School of Art, where he taught from 1953 to 1981, and Gili developed a highly individual way of working iron and steel.  She moved from making welded compositions in steel sheet to creating forged elements brought together through welding. This soon marked her out from her contemporaries at the Stockwell Depot, an artists’ collective and exhibiting space where she was the only female sculptor.
This exhibition shows how the density and inherent weight of iron can express levity, precarious balance and the energy of movement. Gili’s work is large, but not monumental in today’s terms, and she also works to medium and small scale, experimenting with clay and bronze, some fine examples of which are included.