Kai Brooks is a Coventry born artist currently based in Leeds where he graduated from Leeds Art University in 2023. Primarily a painter, Brooks investigates ideas of the self and examines the parallels between love within his social relationships and the intimacy an artist feels for their practice. A focus of his recent body of work has been the sometimes forgotten function of live portrait painting as a way to completely invest in the process of painting someone.

"I've always felt that oil paint mirrors the complexity of human relationships and the need for intimacy; I pull stokes of paint across the canvas, I do this day after day, filled with love for the process, then I go home and get into bed with my partner, pulling the duvet lovingly over our bodies".

Brooks' paintings often focus on love in a domestic setting, examining the way that we care for other people through our actions as our lives become intertwined with the people we live with.

"I hope to encourage my audience to appreciate their own daily rituals and relationships. I want to positively influence our collective outlook on what it means to exist in communities and personal relationships."