Kate Just is an American-born Australian artist, well known for creating tactile sculptures and installations reinterpreting historic, mythic and iconographic objects and figures often linked to women's histories. In her works encompassing knitting, mixed media sculpture, collage, video and digital print, Just forefronts the materiality and power of bodily experience, and its transformative effect on identity.
In earlier elaborate knitted works, Just drew on myth and folklore linking women with nature to metaphorically reflect a range of personal experiences including the death of her brother, sexual awakening, and her desire to be a mother. These included a life-sized tree embedded with the faces and hands of her family, a Persephone-like figure descending into the muddy waters of her suburban lawn, a corn field sprouting from a bed, and the last moments of a Daphne's chosen transformation into a laurel bush. In each, vivid, appealing scene the physical and emotional mutability of women also relayed ideas of grappling with inevitable losses and life changes.
More recently, Just attempts to 'write' her own and a wider female bodily history with evocative resin-clay sculptures and collages of archetypal objects and forms relating to skin's transmissive and receptive potential. These include keys, vessels, soft armors and knitted skins, and a range of mysterious tactile tools and instruments.
Having exhibited widely throughout Australia in commercial, public and artist run galleries, Just's practice has recently extended internationally through residencies, research projects or exhibitions in New York, Barcelona, and Vienna. This year, Just's recent work in Spain will be exhibited at Daine Singer and a survey exhibition of her knitted works will be held at Ararat Regional Gallery in May. For more information see 'Upcoming Exhibitions' below.
Kate Just is represented by Daine Singer
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS 2012:
SOLO:
Venus was her name
Factory, Kunsthalle, Krems, Austria
16 October 2011 - 4 March 2012
Opening: Saturday 16 October 2011
For more information go to
Kunsthalle, Krems
The Skin of Her
Daine Singer
Opening 24 May 2012
For more information go to:
Daine Singer
KATE JUST: KNITTED WORKS 2004 - 2011
Ararat Regional Gallery
17 May - 1 July 2012
For more information go to:
Ararat Regional Gallery
GROUP:
Textile Art Works
Curated by Danica Larkin
Queensland College of Art, Whitebox Gallery
March 15th - April 6th 2012
Hello Dollies
Penrith Regional Gallery, NSW
4 April - 22 April 2012
For more information go to:
Penrith Regional Gallery
Dances with Wools
Bayside City Council, Brighton, VIC
29 Sep to 11 Nov 2012
For more information go to:
Bayside City Council
In earlier elaborate knitted works, Just drew on myth and folklore linking women with nature to metaphorically reflect a range of personal experiences including the death of her brother, sexual awakening, and her desire to be a mother. These included a life-sized tree embedded with the faces and hands of her family, a Persephone-like figure descending into the muddy waters of her suburban lawn, a corn field sprouting from a bed, and the last moments of a Daphne's chosen transformation into a laurel bush. In each, vivid, appealing scene the physical and emotional mutability of women also relayed ideas of grappling with inevitable losses and life changes.
More recently, Just attempts to 'write' her own and a wider female bodily history with evocative resin-clay sculptures and collages of archetypal objects and forms relating to skin's transmissive and receptive potential. These include keys, vessels, soft armors and knitted skins, and a range of mysterious tactile tools and instruments.
Having exhibited widely throughout Australia in commercial, public and artist run galleries, Just's practice has recently extended internationally through residencies, research projects or exhibitions in New York, Barcelona, and Vienna. This year, Just's recent work in Spain will be exhibited at Daine Singer and a survey exhibition of her knitted works will be held at Ararat Regional Gallery in May. For more information see 'Upcoming Exhibitions' below.
Kate Just is represented by Daine Singer
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS 2012:
SOLO:
Venus was her name
Factory, Kunsthalle, Krems, Austria
16 October 2011 - 4 March 2012
Opening: Saturday 16 October 2011
For more information go to
The Skin of Her
Daine Singer
Opening 24 May 2012
For more information go to:
KATE JUST: KNITTED WORKS 2004 - 2011
Ararat Regional Gallery
17 May - 1 July 2012
For more information go to:
GROUP:
Textile Art Works
Curated by Danica Larkin
Queensland College of Art, Whitebox Gallery
March 15th - April 6th 2012
Hello Dollies
Penrith Regional Gallery, NSW
4 April - 22 April 2012
For more information go to:
Dances with Wools
Bayside City Council, Brighton, VIC
29 Sep to 11 Nov 2012
For more information go to:
