About

Kate McLeod is a New Zealand full time mixed-media visual artist working across a wide range of mediums including oil, acrylic, resin, pigments, metal leaf and hand crafted timber frames.

Following her graduation in 2005 from Canterbury University (BA, Art History and Sociology), Kate’s life twisted and turned, with jobs as a TV set designer, art teacher, advertising account manager, creative software executive and restoration project manager giving her licence to explore a wide range of creative disciplines.

Along the way, Melbourne, Auckland, Ankara, London, San Francisco and Sydney have all been called home. In 2015, Kate came full circle, putting down roots in her home town of Ōtautahi. She then set about creating a purpose built studio and environment to support her career as a full-time artist in Ilam.

The desire to mould and sculpt raw materials into something new started early. As a baby she took the only malleable, viscous substance she could get her hands on and painted her cot. Today she creates large scale paintings in oil and acrylic and makes assemblage from recycled found items. Copper and gold foil also feature heavily in her work along with other mixed media, nothing is out of bounds.

Kate’s current gestural, lyrical abstraction focuses on being attuned to the rhythms of life. Her work is imbued with a sense of immediate, fluid movement that invites an emotional response from her audience. Grounded by her deep fascination with colour, each work is a performance that captures a fleeting moment, a memory of a feeling.

Kate is on a mission to move one human at a time: “I hope you feel the physical, explosive energy of my movement. As if you were there the moment it was created”.

SHOWS

2005 Majestic Group Show - Majestic Theatre, Christchurch, NZ. Curator and artist.

2005 Face Value Group Exhibition - CoCA Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki, Christchurch, NZ.

2020 December, Kate McLeod Solo Show. Ebb and Flow. Pūmanawa Gallery, The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora, Christchurch, NZ.

2021 April, Christchurch Art Show, Christchurch, NZ.

2021 July, Kate McLeod Solo Performance Painting. Th’Orchard Dreams. The Great Hall. The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora, Christchurch, NZ.

2021 May, Rightside Gallery, Group Show, Christchurch, NZ.

2021 September, Mt Pleasant Art Show, Christchurch, NZ.

2021 October, More The Show, Christchurch, NZ.

2021 October, St George’s Gallery Wall, Christchurch, NZ.

2022 May, Auckland Art Show, Auckland, NZ.

2022 June, NZ Art Show, Wellington, NZ

2022 June, AI Gallery Fourth Anniversary Show, Auckland, NZ

2022 Christchurch Art Show, Te Pae, Christchurch, NZ.

2022 August, Arts Canterbury Show at the Cashmere Club - Ōtautahi

2022 September, St. Margarets College Art Exhibition - Ōtautahi

2022 October, November Arts Canterbury Juried Exhibition - Eastside Gallery - Ōtautahi

2022 September, Mt Pleasant Art Exhibition - Ōtautahi

2022 November, Hohepa Art Exhibition - Ōtautahi

2022 November, Studio Toru Summer Group Show - Wellington

2023 March, Rei Gallery Opening Show - Lyttelton

2023 17 - 19 March Chch Art Show, Te Pae - Ōtautahi

2023 18 - 21 May, Auckland Art Show - The Cloud Auckland

2023 31 May - 4 June, NZ Art Show - TSB Wellington

2023 October, Solo Show, Capture and Release at Rei Gallery Whakaraupō

2023 December, Silk Road Rendezvous Group Exhibition with over 80 Nations Represented in Liangzhu, Hangzhou, China

QUALIFICATIONS

2024. New Zealand Certificate in Te Reo Māori - Level 5. Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

2023. New Zealand Certificate in Te Reo Māori - Level 3 & 4. Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

2022. New Zealand Certificate in Te Reo Māori - Level 1 & 2. Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

2005. Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Sociology. The University of Canterbury.