Kate Dorrough

Born 1964, Sydney, Australia 

Lives & Works – Sydney (Eora)

The practice of Kate Dorrough sustains a conversation between paint and clay, launching an inquiry into the interplay and tension between the gestural mark and the hand built ceramic form. The artist's recent work explores landscape as metaphor, with its inland river systems a vital source of survival and bestowal of fertility. Dorrough considers the cyclicality of renewal and destruction that defines the land, her painterly gestural marks evoking totemic symbols of this enduring landscape.

Dorrough’s work as a painter and ceramicist has led to an extensive career exhibiting work at leading galleries in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, as well as a number of residencies including Earth Canvas (2026), The Corridor Project (2026, 2025), La Macina di San Cresci, Italy (2018), Art Vault (2011), the Hill End Artists Residency (2005), Bundanon Trust (1999) and the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris (1999). She has been a finalist in a number of awards including the Northern Beaches Environmental & Design Award (2026, 2024), Fisher's Ghost Art Award (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021), North Queensland Ceramic Awards (2026, 2024, 2022), Calleen Art Award (2026, 2020, 2019, 2018), North Sydney Art Prize (2022, 2019), Muswellbrook Art Prize (2019, 2015),  Paddington Art Prize (2024, 2022, 2021, 2018, 2012, 2011, 2007), Mosman Art Prize (2019, 2012, 2004, 2001, 2000, 1995), Portia Geach Memorial Award (2004, 2001, 1992), Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize (2010, 2008), Sawmillers Sculpture Prize (2022, 2010), Clunes Ceramic Art Award (2026, 2022, 2010), and was selected for the Australian Ceramics Association Biennial Exhibition (2014). In 2024, she opened a major exhibition alongside her mother, highly acclaimed artist Heather Dorrough which toured across New South Wales to galleries including Manning Regional Art Gallery and Tamworth Regional Art Gallery. In October 2025, she was selected from 600 artists to exhibit at the prestigious Messums West in London in a group landscape exhibition. Dorrough’s work is also held in various public and private collections around Australia, including Campbelltown Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Sony Music Entertainment, Grafton Regional Gallery, Bathurst Regional Gallery and Melbourne Casino.