Kate Rusek

Born in Newark, OH / Works in Queens, NY

BIO

Kate Rusek is a New York based sculptor and garment maker whose research and art making considers the intricate connectivity between humanity, material culture, and the natural world. Her biophilic forms assert abundance as an act of future making. She works almost exclusively in reclaimed and surplus textile, metals, and plastics and has more recently begun to integrate these materials into a ceramics practice. Kate Rusek has also worked for the Jim Henson Company since 2015 making props and puppets for Sesame Street. She currently works from a studio in Queens.

My object based work is about looking with curiosity, being present enough to really see. This looking elicits transformation. In engaging with repetitive, chance based making, I create forms the organically emerge. This challenge coupled with landfill-bound domestic goods, industrial cast-offs, and materials past their useful lives pushes the work to consider the contrasts between abundance and waste, society and the natural environment. Organic totems are created as commitment to a resolute, fruitful and abundant future, and a well-spring of creative potential for all who encounter their space.