KATE NEWBY

Artist bio

Very active weather
February 17 - March 24, 2024
Opening Reception: February 17, 5-7pm

Simultaneously held:

February 16 - May 31, 2024
Ecology: Dialogue on Circulations / Dialogue 2 “Ephemeral Anchoring”
Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum
＞

October 18, 2023 - March 31, 2024
Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living
Mori Art Museum
＞

At KAYOKOYUKI we are pleased to announce Kate Newby’s first solo exhibition in Japan "Very active weather".
She is also taking part in the group show "Ecology: Dialogue on Circulations/ Daialogue 2, Ephemeral Anchoring" which is concurrently taking place at Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum as well as "Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living" at the Mori Art Museum. We invite you to take this opportunity to witness her work.

Through her careful architectural interventions Kate Newby (b.1979 in Aotearoa, New Zealand, currently residing and working in Texas) consistently forges a new interaction among the urban gallery site, her works and the audience. On this occasion, we are welcomed at the entrance by a commissioned terrazzo step by Newby, inviting us to walk on it. Ceramic sculptures, formed through the act of throwing, are molded into a brick-coloured terrazzo produced in Toyama. Newby’s practice frequently incorporates collaborations with local industrial producers, which allows her to integrate herself into an existing factory process, harmonizing it with her distinct artistic approach. Rather than relying on conventional tools, her own process often involves the weight or motions of her own body to sculpt the forms of her ceramic pieces, paralleling the comfort and warmth against the industrially produced sharp and clean edges.
By merging broken glass found in the streets and pathways of Tokyo with clay which she fires in Texas, Kate’s works often unveil the transformative nature of everyday objects over time. The impact of external factors such as climate and human activities that soften the edges and fade the colors remind us of the metamorphosis of the original source materials, as reflected in the title Very active weather.

Each work appears to be carefully and intentionally spaced, forming a symbiotic relationship between the gallery and Newby’s pieces. The various organic textures evoke the growth of organisms or fungi within an urban landscape. Subtly weaving together ropes, glass, ceramics with the existing structure in Komagome, Newby not only enhances perceptual awareness of local architecture but also draws attention to the potential within empty spaces in the constellation. In this immersive approach, the artworks, floating, hanging, and concealing, prompt contemplation of sensitivity towards materiality and space.

Kate Newby was born in 1979, in Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand, and is currently living and working in Texas, Houston, the United States. In 2015 she graduated with a PhD from the Elam School of Fine Art at the University of Auckland.

Kate has presented her works in: solo show “She’s talking to the wall” at Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, 2023; solo show “miles off road” at Fine Arts, Sydney, 2023; solo show “Had us running with you” at Michael Lett, Auckland, 2023; “Réclamer la Terre” at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2022; solo show “So close, come on” at The Sunday Painter, London, 2022; solo show “We are such stuff” at Laurel Gitlen, New York, 2022; solo show “Try doing anything without it” at Art: Concept, Paris, 2022; “L'oeil du serpent” at Musée d'art contemporain de la Haute-Vienne, Rochechouart, 2021; “The Flames: The Living Arts of Ceramics” at Musée d'art moderne de Paris, Paris, 2021; “washed up” at Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, New York, 2021; solo show “YES TOMORROW” at Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, 2021; solo show “Wild was the night” at Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne, 2019; solo show “A puzzling light and moving.” at lumber room, Portland, 2019; solo show “Nothing in my life feels big enough” at Cooper Cole, Toronto, 2019; “21st Biennale of Sydney” at Cockatoo Island and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018; “Further Thoughts on Earthy Materials” at Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg, 2018; solo show “I can't nail the days down” at Kunsthalle Wien, Wien, 2018; “In Practice: Material Deviance” at SculptureCenter, New York, 2017; “The Promise, curated by Axel Wieder” at Index - The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Stockholm, 2017; and solo show “Let me be the wind that pulls your hair” at Artpace, San Antonio, 2017.

She has completed residencies at: The Joan Mitchell Foundation (2019), The Chinati Foundation (2017), Artpace (2017), Fogo Island (2013), and the International Studio & Curatorial Program ISCP (2012) and won the Walters Prize, New Zealand’s largest contemporary art prize, in 2012 and the Ettore Fico Prize (Turin, IT) in 2022.