Kay Abude is a multidisciplinary artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Her expanded sculptural practice encompasses large-scale installation, photography, performance, video, and silk screen printing. Abude’s work is about work itself: the value of it, the effort, the inequality and insecurity of it, especially for artists.
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Recent commissions include BE CREATIVE REMAIN RESILIENT, Mural Commission, The Showroom, London, UK, 2023–24, and Smoko Room, 2023 Paul Selzer Prize, Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Southbank, 2023.
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Abude has been the recipient of numerous grants, including Creative Australia Project Grants in 2025 and 2023, Hume Arts Activity Grants in 2025 and 2022, a City of Melbourne Creative Laneways Project Grant in 2021, and a Play King Foundation Grant at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 2020. Abude was a studio artist at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, from 2019 to 2022.
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Kay Abude
POWER
8 March - 7 July 2019
Hand silk screen on linen - artworks performed by artists of colour and their family members on the opening night of the exhibition at Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne
Dimensions variable
Kay Abude hand screen printed one hundred garments with the word POWER with an image of herself and two other artists of colour, Lara Chamas and Ceren Sinanoglu. For the opening night of National Anthem, curated by Dr Kate Just at Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, Abude invited one hundred artists of colour and their families to arrive at the opening wearing these artworks. This critical mass manifested an act of community solidarity and an intention to make people of colour more visible in the art world and constructions of national identity.
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POWER brought together the diverse cultures that make up an ‘Australian identity'. My identity stems from a working-class background with a relentless work ethic at its centre. It’s different from that of my immigrant parents and different from a white Australian identity. My identity has also been fostered within the creative arts sector.
~ Kay Abude
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