Kate Just

Background

About Kate Just

I am an American born Australian feminist artist, academic and teacher best known for my inventive and political use of knitting as a sculptural and pictorial medium. In addition to my solo practice, I often work socially and collaboratively within communities to create large scale, public art projects that tackle significant social issues including sexual harassment and violence against women. I was born in Hartford, CT in 1974 and migrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1994. I hold a PhD in Sculpture from Monash University, a Master of Arts from RMIT University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Victorian College of the Arts where I am a Senior Lecturer in the Master of Contemporary Art program. I have exhibited my artwork extensively across Australia in over one hundred group and solo exhibitions including at The National Gallery of Australia, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts, Artspace, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Gertrude Contemporary and The Centre for Contemporary Photography. Internationally I have has exhibited my work at AIR Gallery and the AC Institute in New York, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Richmond Virginia, the Rijswijk Museum in the Netherlands, the Auckland Art Fair, Kunsthalle Krems in Austria, Sanskriti Gallery in New Delhi, Youkobo Artspace in Tokyo and Titanik Galleria in Turku, Finland. I have been the recipient of over forty grants, prizes, fellowships, awards and residencies. I have received grants from the Australia Council for the Arts, City of Melbourne and Creative Victoria. I was the winner of the 2007 Seimen’s Prize, the 2013 British Council Realise Your Dream Award, the 2014 Rupert Bunny Visual Art Fellowship, the 2015 Wangaratta Textile Prize, the 2020 Incinerator Art for Social Change People’s Choice Award and the 2022 Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship (Visual Art). I have undertaken local residencies at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces and the Australian Tapestry Workshop and have been awarded numerous international residencies including Art Omi in New York, Red Gate in Beijing, Youkobo Artspace in Tokyo, the Australia Council Residency in Barcelona, the Asialink residency at Sanskriti Foundation in New Delhi and a KREMS AIR residency in Krems Austria. My work is held in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia, AGSA, Artbank, the City of Port Phillip, Wangaratta Art Gallery, TAMA (Textile Art Museum of Australia), Cruthers Women’s Art Foundation and Proclaim Management Collection. I am represented by Hugo Michell Gallery in Adelaide.