“Motherhood has provided the perfect environment for a very slow-burning unfolding; much of the work has been made thoughtfully, at a measured, considered pace.” Lyddon reflects. “More recently though, as I have gained more time to make work (as my daughter grows), a fresher, faster approach has been possible. So this exhibition includes work which I have returned to over many years, some with numerous layers of self-history and meaning, while others hold an urgency and a lightness which feels vital and encompasses a sense of new found freedom.”

Independent curator and collector Marcelle Joseph is Lyddon’s champion for The Wick. She recalls: “I sought Kate Lyddon out back in 2015 for a studio visit. I was so struck by her exhibition at the Standpoint Gallery in 2014 after winning the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award. Equal parts macabre and surrealist, her figurative paintings and sculptures are charged with an energy that puts the viewer on the edge of their seat as if watching a jump scare in a horror film. Abject, bodily, grotesque but beautiful at the same time – these are the adjectives I think of when viewing Kate’s work, complex and oppositional qualities that only an empowered female artist could produce. Her vibrant colour palette and use of multiple perspectives add to the thrill of spectatorship. I can’t wait to see what’s around the corner for this exciting and gifted artist.”

The art world seems to agree with Joseph – Lyddon has hung work next to Maria Lassnig (for The Stand-Ins: Figurative Painting at the Zabludowicz Collection) and shown work at the Drawing Room alongside the likes of Caroline Wong and Alice Maher for the 2021 group show Drawn Out) and in the Spring of 2025 will exhibit with Guy Haddon Grant at The Artists General Benevolent Institution, London. In October, she is included in Herbert Read Gallery’s Give Away Your Relics.

Though her visual language is so evocative and unique, Lyddon’s work is continually evolving. Moving between mediums, Lyddon says, “allows me to find a different way through the work each time. I am particularly in love with oil paint and a sense of slippage between layers”. Thematically, she keeps it fresh by working according to intuition, guided by the “elements, the seasons, and related mythology” that seep into the work, she explains. Whether she’s making work about the school run or the Met Gala, we agree with Joseph – we are on the edge of our seats waiting to see what Lyddon comes up with next.