Kate Rusek assembles highly tactile sculptures, textile, and installation with an emphasis on Craft and materiality. Her work transmutes wasting and waste matter into abundant, maximalist, composite forms and dynamic biophilic textures that interrogate assigned value, material narrative, and a rigid binary of ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’. Kate Rusek’s research, writing, and artwork examines the connective edges and dissonant intersections between humanity’s material culture and the natural world. Rusek received dual B.F.As from The University of Miami and an M.A from Savannah College of Art and Design. Rusek has been awarded residencies at The Archie Bray Foundation, Chulitna Lodge, The Hambidge Center, GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, and Vermont Studio Center 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. Rusek has exhibited her work in New York, Los Angeles, across Montana and the Pacific Northwest. She will present a solo exhibition at Sonoma Ceramics to culminate her residency in the fall of 2024