Kate’s Story

Kate Durham is a Melbourne artist, practising in jewellery, painting, decorative art, interiors, sculpture and drawing. She was trained in fine art in Melbourne.

Her work has been shown in Japan, England, the USA and around Australia. Kate has sells her designs in several boutiques and design stores across Australia. 

Kate is represented in major collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, The National Gallery, Canberra, Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Sydney Powerhouse Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston and Shepparton Regional Art Gallery, Victoria

In 2001, Kate established Spare Rooms for Refugees, a project to provide community accommodation for asylum seekers. In June 2002, she travelled to Nauru with a BBC journalist and thus provided the first images of Australia’s Pacific Solution.

Jewellery

In the 1980’s Kate made popular her extravagant, bejewelled jewellery, head-pieces, drawings, paintings, sculptures, busts, mirrors, frames and furniture. Kate’s choice of materials from scraps, remnants, and rubbish informed her playful and unique anti-fashion, fashion style. 

“Jewels don’t need to have precious metals or gems to have value. Sometimes the patient or creative work of an artist can elevate the most ordinary materials into something of worth or meaning.  For me jewellery even if it’s contemporary owes something to its wearer, it needs to flatter, decorate or play with its wearer, preferably all three. I love to make jewellery, especially for these austere and often unimaginative times. I try to provide for aesthetic longings that our culture likes to deny us. As someone cleverer than me said, I think it was Dianna Vreeland, “the eye likes to travel “ . My jewellery offers little adventures for the eye and the mind , I hope they are engaging enough to be enjoyed for a very long time .”