Kate Just
Lecturer
Please click here to view images of Kate's work.
Kate Just is an American born, Melbourne based artist best known for her sculptural knitting practice informed strongly by emotional and autobiographical references. Just's practice also encompasses use of collage, digital print, and video. Experiences of childhood memory, her own migration, and the garden/natural environment as an allegory for the human condition influenced Just's early works while more recent works envisage transformations of human (in particular female) bodies into natural and other forms and the landscapes these imagined bodies inhabit. Just’s works incorporate Greek and other mythologies, such as Persephone's descent underground and Daphne's transformation into a laurel tree, as well as religious and art historical references, and popular studies in feminism and science fiction. The works posit change as a metaphor for personal struggle, adaptation and awakening sexuality and creativity.
Kate Just holds a Bachelor of Science in Film Making from Boston University, a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) from the Victorian College of the Arts and a Master of Arts (Fine Arts) at RMIT University. She has exhibited her work across Australia at a range of public, artist run and commercial galleries. Recent solo exhibitions include The Garden of Interior Delights at Don’t Come Gallery and Shed That Skin at MOP Gallery, Sydney, 2008, I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself at Bus Gallery, 2007, Paradise at TCB art inc, Melbourne 2006, A Project Room at Melbourne Art Fair, 2006, The Entertainer at Centre for Contemporary Photography 2006, Family at West Space, Melbourne 2005, and Boundary (LOVE) at Canberra Contemporary Art Space 2004. Recent group exhibitions include NEO POP, John Buckley Gallery, Richmond, 2008, Life, Death, Thereafter curated by Mark Feary, Silvershot, 2008, 40 Degrees, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, 2007, Beckon, at Perth Institute for Contemporary Arts 2006, and Traverse, Lake Macquarie Regional Gallery, NSW 2004. Just has been the recipient of numerous grants and prizes including an Australian Postgraduate award for Masters Research (2006-2008), an Arts Victoria Creation grant (2005), three city of Melbourne arts project grants as well as being a finalist in both the 2008 Blake Prize and the 2007 RIPE: Art& Australia and ANZ Emerging Artist Award. In 2006, she was the winner of the Siemens Fine Art Prize. Just worked as the Program Manager of West Space Gallery from 2005 to 2006, was an artist in residence at Heide Museum of Modern Art in 2007, has been a lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts (Painting) since 2005, and has contributed reviews to publications including UN magazine, Eyeline and Artlink. She began her two year residency at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Residency in February 2008. Just is represented by Nellie Castan Gallery.
Kate Just is an American born, Melbourne based artist best known for her sculptural knitting practice informed strongly by emotional and autobiographical references. Just's practice also encompasses use of collage, digital print, and video. Experiences of childhood memory, her own migration, and the garden/natural environment as an allegory for the human condition influenced Just's early works while more recent works envisage transformations of human (in particular female) bodies into natural and other forms and the landscapes these imagined bodies inhabit. Just’s works incorporate Greek and other mythologies, such as Persephone's descent underground and Daphne's transformation into a laurel tree, as well as religious and art historical references, and popular studies in feminism and science fiction. The works posit change as a metaphor for personal struggle, adaptation and awakening sexuality and creativity.
Kate Just holds a Bachelor of Science in Film Making from Boston University, a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) from the Victorian College of the Arts and a Master of Arts (Fine Arts) at RMIT University. She has exhibited her work across Australia at a range of public, artist run and commercial galleries. Recent solo exhibitions include The Garden of Interior Delights at Don’t Come Gallery and Shed That Skin at MOP Gallery, Sydney, 2008, I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself at Bus Gallery, 2007, Paradise at TCB art inc, Melbourne 2006, A Project Room at Melbourne Art Fair, 2006, The Entertainer at Centre for Contemporary Photography 2006, Family at West Space, Melbourne 2005, and Boundary (LOVE) at Canberra Contemporary Art Space 2004. Recent group exhibitions include NEO POP, John Buckley Gallery, Richmond, 2008, Life, Death, Thereafter curated by Mark Feary, Silvershot, 2008, 40 Degrees, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, 2007, Beckon, at Perth Institute for Contemporary Arts 2006, and Traverse, Lake Macquarie Regional Gallery, NSW 2004. Just has been the recipient of numerous grants and prizes including an Australian Postgraduate award for Masters Research (2006-2008), an Arts Victoria Creation grant (2005), three city of Melbourne arts project grants as well as being a finalist in both the 2008 Blake Prize and the 2007 RIPE: Art& Australia and ANZ Emerging Artist Award. In 2006, she was the winner of the Siemens Fine Art Prize. Just worked as the Program Manager of West Space Gallery from 2005 to 2006, was an artist in residence at Heide Museum of Modern Art in 2007, has been a lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts (Painting) since 2005, and has contributed reviews to publications including UN magazine, Eyeline and Artlink. She began her two year residency at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Residency in February 2008. Just is represented by Nellie Castan Gallery.