Catherine Long

Catherine Long’s background as a dance artist informs her painting practice. She explores the expressive possibilities of colour and painterly gesture, filling her compositions with fields of tones bound by sinuous lines, an abstract and evocative analogy to the movements of a dancer’s body. Her paintings often take as a subject loose sensations and impressions, indicated by colours and the robustness or delicacy of her paint application. The artist further involves her viewers in her emotional state by often painting on a large scale, enveloping the viewer in their theatrical, visceral qualities.

Long (born 1982) studied Dance at De Montfort University, where she obtained an MA in 2010. In 2017, she obtained her PhD in Fine Art from the Chelsea School of Arts, and in 2024 completed an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art. Long has held several solo exhibitions in London, including, among others, Rotator Cuff, 139 Artspace (2019), and The body keeps the score mark II, Chisenhale Art Place (2021). She has also featured in group exhibitions across Europe, including in Belgium, Portugal and Germany, and has been the recipient of numerous artist residencies in the United Kingdom and Portugal. Long lives and works in London.