Kate Howe
Artist In Residence December 2025 - March 2026
The Myth Eaters at RuptureXIBIT, London
Kate Howe in Residency: 1 Dec - 1 Mar
Exhibition: 26 Feb - 1 Mar 12-6 pm
Workshop with Anna Johnson 27 Feb 4-6pm
Performances and Readings: 27 Feb 6-9 pm.
Artist and Writer Kate Howe will be in residence at RuptureXIBIT 1 Dec - 1 March, producing work in response to their research on contemporary implications of ancient myths, especially as they relate to the sticking power of belief around gendered roles in society, and the origins, outlines, and implications of "expected rules regarding the expression of gender in society" from private performance to public.
The show brings together a new body of work from RuptureXIBIT’s Resident Artist Kate Howe including paintings, immersive installations, and text all responding to the power and thrall of Myth. This work is an extension of Howe’s current Ph.D research (by practice) at the a university of Leeds on the mechanics of the socialization of gendered sexual violence.
The programme includes a collaborative writing exhibition with invited authors, live readings, and performances — including a soundscape by Nick Parkin and Butoh performance by internationally renowned dancer Yumino Seki in response to Howe’s installation work, taking place on 27 Feb (6–9pm).
Exhibition: 26 Feb - 1 Mar 12-6 pm (Book here)
Writing Workshop ‘Writing our journeys and transformations’, with Dr. Anna Johnson (Brook) Friday 27th Feb 4-6pm (Book here).
Performances and Readings: Friday 27th Feb 6-9 pm (Book here).
Evening Line-up:
6pm Evening starts.
6.30pm Fireside reading with Kate Howe.
7pm Yumino Seki and Nick Parkin - Butoh & Soundscape performance in the front gallery.
7.30pm Fireside readings with Anna Brook, Ashleigh Sean Rolle and Liz Femi.
8pm Butoh & Soundscape Performance by Yumino Seki and Nick Parkin.
8.30pm Templum reading with Sofia Javaid.
Kate talks about the process of the build. "Myth Eaters challenge the myth of everything. They challenge the primacy of the stories we tell, the stability of those stories, which stories are allowed, whose stories they are, and why we come to believe and revere them. Thinking about this, some environments are beginning to take shape. There is something of theatre here - a place seemingly poised for a fantastic happening. There will be clues indicating you are close to their home, near the lair, in their hunting ground. In the back, I am doing the opposite. Some of the creatures appear to be wandering around the studio, walking through and living in this sort of blank and waiting paradise framework, almost like a loading frame of a possible future, a new story.
Additionally, we will premiere Sharyn Wortman’s latest film, Errant Father, and you’ll get a copy of Rupture's first zine, The Myth Eaters, with original writing from our nine authors responding to the theme.
The Myth Eaters Zine
The Myth Eaters zine has been edited and curated by Anna Brook with editing by Ashleigh Sean Rolle and design by Jeremy Simon. The zine features poems and fragments of writing from 9 contributors:
Anna Brook
Karan Chambers
SOOZ3N
Sharyn Wortman
Liz Femi
Sofia Javaid
Kate Howe
Ashleigh Sean Rolle
Emma Filtness
This zine brings together poetry and fragments of text that echo and resonate with the themes of Kate Howe’s RUPTUREXIBIT residency, The Myth Eaters, December 2025 - March 2026.
Howe came to The Myth Eaters through their PhD research on museum objects and the stories they carry, Howe’s particular interest being around objects that take gendered violence as their subject.
The Myth Eaters
I will be building a new installation The Myth Eaters in my favorite blacked-out installation space in my converted shed in Rupture's back garden for our Open Studios on the 29th. This space has hosted numerous performances and installations through the years and is always exciting to build. The piece is a return to textiles for me. I am working with a delicious, diaphenous dusty rose chiffon fabric, indicating the 'red scarf of passion' which is often carried by putto or by the main figure, for instance, it is clutched by Europa in Titian's Rape of Europa, and this mark, of her fist and the trailing scarf, is embedded across my paintings. Bringing the 'red scarf of passion' into my shed, and rouching and pouching and pocketing and rending and staining and forming it, I am meditating on the nature of myth, what it teaches us about our roles in life, especially what these myths and their depictions teach us about our gender roles, the purpose of gender, and how to perform it correctly.
This work is the first sketch of an impulse which I will expand for my annual winter residency in the front exhibition space at Rupture. The work can be observed being built from 1 Dec, and will be available for viewing by appointment and through the shop front window for the month of January.
About Kate
Howe (American) is an artist, writer and post-graduate researcher at the University of Leeds where they are pursuing a Ph.D. in Practice-led research entitled Collecting Rape: Collation, Curation and Response to every item in the Victoria and Albert Museum and Archives that takes Rape as its subject. Howe holds an MA from Kingston University in Creative Writing, an MA from the Royal College of Art in Painting, a BA from Arizona State University in Art History, and an AA from Foothill College in Technical Theatre.
Howe is the Founding Director and Artist in Residence at RuptureXIBIT, an inclusive, artist-run residency based practice incubator located in South West London, and has shown at the Aspen Art Museum (US), Lychee One Gallery (London, GB), The Crypt St. Pancras (London, GB), Mile End Art Pavilion (London, GB), Orleans House Gallery (London, GB) and Patrick Studios, Leeds (GB).
My work explores gender identity and the socialisation of gendered violence through painting, installation, text, and performance. I begin with a marked surface which mirrors the state of my own body, pulled apart and rendered whole again and again. This continual rupture, reconstitution and dissolution mirrors the actions of memory, loss, and the process of editing, recording and presenting histories. Read more on their artists website