About Kate McKay Studios

Kate McKay is a multidisciplinary artist based on the banks of the Kanamaluka/Tamar River in northern Lutruwita/Tasmania. With a background spanning ceramics, collage, sculpture, oil painting and traditional Tibetan art, her practice is grounded in both skilled technique and playful experimentation.

Currently working primarily with wheel-thrown and hand-built ceramics, Kate draws on materials that speak to place, such as local ‘wild’ clays and natural pigments. She pairs these with local Tasmanian porcelain for its luminous almost ethereal quality. The result is work that feels grounded and alive, pieces that hold an inherent sense of place and. hint at the invisible threads that tie us to land, community and each other.

Her creative process sits in the space between intention and letting go, a dance between discipline and happy accident. While she aspires to a kind of Zen simplicity, joy in the process tends to take over. Colour creeps in, forms loosen and what emerges is work that’s vibrant, textured, and just a little unruly, akin to life itself. At its heart, Kate’s practice is quiet meditation on connection: What matters? What deserves our attention? Her work invites us to remember our entanglement with the living world, and the quiet responsibilities that come with that.

Born in Tasmania, she has lived and worked across Australia, Japan and Aotearoa/New Zealand.

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