Kate Bohunnis’ practice is conceptually rigorous and technically resolved, with an inventive approach to materials and a focus on gender, identity and queer methodologies. Centred from the perspective of a queer woman working in the male dominated industries of metal fabrication and sculpture, Bohunnis’ work focusses on gender performativity and gender-based violence. Recently she has turned her attention to exploring the many dimensions and difficulties of pleasure. In form, it often leans toward the abject as a way of negotiating these bodily and political identities. She is known for producing pared back, large-scale sculptural installations using metals in contradictory and deliberate dialogue with wax, silicone, latex, leather and textiles. Her works are often highly charged with allusions to power, dominance, subjugation and containment, in order to demonstrate the restrictive and sometimes punitive nature of patriarchal ideals and fetishisation of genders norms.

Bohunnis has received significant acclaim in her career so far. She was the winner of the 2021 Ramsay Art Prize, Australia’s premier prize for emerging artists. Bohunnis was also recipient of an Arts SA 2022 Fellowship, and awarded the Eran Svigos Award for Best Visual Art, Adelaide Fringe (2020); South Australian Graduate Award, Helpmann Academy (2020); David Hayden Professional Development Award (2018); Watson Award (2017); and the Arts Excellence in Printmaking Award, Adelaide College of the Arts (2016).