Exhibition Launch: Friday 31st July 2026, 5pm-8pm
Exhibition continues until 29th August 2026
Gallery opening times - 11am - 1pm & 1.30pm - 4pm Wednesday to Saturday
In this new body of work, Rusek explores the concepts of movement and dwelling, examining the interconnected links between land and sea. Drawing on edge-zone ecology as a metaphor for dynamic cooperation, the exhibition invites the viewer into ‘abundant thinking’ inspired by rhythmic biological patterns and natural systems. The artist is particularly drawn to mechanisms of filtration found in ecosystems—including fungi, planktonic marine organisms, and nitrogen-fixing plants—as powerful metaphors for metabolising emotion and memory. By magnifying often-overlooked microscopic and small-scale forms of life, Rusek reveals the unseen, reclaiming what may have been lost and giving tangible form to grief, absence, and remembrance. The exhibition features a diverse range of ceramics, mixed-media works, and found materials, spanning intimate votive objects to large-scale installation works.
Kate Rusek (b. Newark, Ohio, USA) is a multi-disciplinary artist assembling highly tactile sculptures, textile, garment and installation with an emphasis on Craft and materiality. Rusek received an MA from Savannah College of Art and Design and dual BFA’s from The University of Miami. Rusek has been awarded residencies at The Archie Bray Foundation, Socrates Sculpture Park, and Vashon AIR among others. She is the Devra Freelander Fellow at Socrates Sculpture Park for 2023 and the recipient of a Windgate Distinguished Fellowship for Innovation in Craft. She is a Daytime Emmy winner for her costume design on Sesame Street and has built a career as a bespoke fine Tailor, builder of couture and specialty costumes. Selected exhibition venues include Hollis Taggart (NYC, 2026); Trotter and Scholer (NYC, 2022); di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art (Napa, CA,2026); Socrates Sculpture Park (NYC, 2023); Material for the Arts (NYC, 2024); Geheim Gallery (Bellingham, WA, 2024); and The Vestibule (Seattle, 2024), among others. Rusek splits her time between New York City and Bellingham, WA.
Artist Statement
Influenced by man-made environmental catastrophes, emotional landscapes, and ecological systems, Kate Rusek assembles highly tactile sculptures transmuting these themes into lavish maximalism. Using large quantities of collected and constructed objects, these composite forms and dynamic biophilic textures interrogate socially constructed value and material narrative. Rooted in Post Natural Studies and garment craft traditions, her objects emerge from complex processes, where the manufactured relents to fluid chaos, possessing an alluring strangeness that emerges when the body recognizes connection to our planet’s life sustaining forces. Engaging with history laden excesses, Rusek shapes scenes that examine the binary between the living and manufactured worlds with an emphasis on a somatic experience of Craft. Through a lens of deep time, particular interest is placed on synthetic and highly manufactured elements as an action to transform anthropogenic ruin into a counter-economic act of rebellion. Her work is a method to posit a regenerative future and present questions about psychological perception, socially constructed value, and a broader care ethic through a lens of desire and abundance.
Curated by Sean O'Reilly