Following a classic, academic training in Florence, Kate Dunn studied MA Fine Art at City & Guilds of London Art School, graduating in 2018. Kate’s practice centres on renaissance, rave, light and sacred space, taking the form of altarpiece paintings and multi-sensory installation; the multi-sensory aspect coming from UV light, darkness and sound. The sound coming from collaborations with several producers, most frequently one under the alias of Shoobz Darg. Looking at the many ways we engage in worship, Kate references the spectrum of sacred spaces emerging from this engagement. The term ‘collective effervescence’ describes the basis of her research, coined by Emile Durkheim in the 1900s; Durkheim argued that the church congregation were not worshipping god but the feeling of communal ecstasy they experienced in the space.
The conception of her work comes from the discomfort of being in her body and attempts to escape or embrace it. In September 2020, she put on her first solo show SKIN OF LIGHT at SET Bermondsey. In 2021, she had a solo show THE TABERNACLE, WELCOME TO PHARMAKON at TJ Boulting Gallery in London. The show received success and was written up in Frieze, The Art Newspaper, FAD and elsewhere. THE TABERNACLE was then taken to A plus A gallery in Venice, where it showed until January 2022.