Melbourne/Naarm-based contemporary printmaker Kate Gorringe-Smith works in 2D and 3D form and installation. Her work is intimately connected to the environment, and she explores ways to convey the sense of the rich and unique entanglement of site, plant, human and animal life. She has a great love of birds that was greatly influenced by her work with BirdLife Australia in the 1990s. Birds are the easiest wild animals to see, and looking for birds is often a portal into a richer appreciation of the environment. Her work often references migratory shorebirds to illustrate the environmental connections that link us individually and globally.
In recent years, Kate has expanded her practice, exploring ways to connect works with specific sites and to reflect the experience of being in place. While still using traditional printmaking techniques, she also uses eco-printing and dying, fibre art, glass art, and photography. Her practice is both an investigation/celebration of, and a collaboration with, the environment, as she incorporates waters, light, natural processes and natural materials into her work.
In 2017 Kate launched The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary, an unique ongoing environmental art project uniting artists around Australia to raise awareness for migratory shorebirds, our most endangered group of birds, and their wetland habitat. To date, the Project has involved over 300 artists in c.30 exhibitions throughout Australia, and has raised $51,000 for BirdLife Australia’s shorebird conservation projects. Kate has also presented conference papers on ways of engaging audiences with migratory shorebird and wetland conservation, and was a keynote speaker at the first East Asian-Australasian Flyway Shorebird Science Meeting. If you are interested in more details about the Project or how to get involved, please go to the Project website, theoverwinteringproject.com or email [email protected].
In 2024 Kate completed an MRes. at Macquarie University NSW in more-than-human history of wetland conservation, specifically concerning Warn Marin/Western Port in Victoria. In October 2025 she began a PhD further exploring this area of research at the same institution.
Kate has a BA in printmaking from RMIT and has been exhibiting her work for over three decades. Her work has been shortlisted in many major art prizes around Australia, including the Silk Cut, Burnie, Geelong and Castlemaine Experimental Print Prizes, the Manly Artists Book Prize, and the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery National Works on Paper Prize. In 2025 she won the WAMA Environmental Art Award.
Below: Kate Gorringe-Smith, 2020, Homage to the Bee Tree, eco print with linocut and ink, 930 x 1220 mm. Finalist in the 2021 Burnie Print Prize. Acquired by Burnie Regional Art Gallery.
In recent years, Kate has expanded her practice, exploring ways to connect works with specific sites and to reflect the experience of being in place. While still using traditional printmaking techniques, she also uses eco-printing and dying, fibre art, glass art, and photography. Her practice is both an investigation/celebration of, and a collaboration with, the environment, as she incorporates waters, light, natural processes and natural materials into her work.
In 2017 Kate launched The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary, an unique ongoing environmental art project uniting artists around Australia to raise awareness for migratory shorebirds, our most endangered group of birds, and their wetland habitat. To date, the Project has involved over 300 artists in c.30 exhibitions throughout Australia, and has raised $51,000 for BirdLife Australia’s shorebird conservation projects. Kate has also presented conference papers on ways of engaging audiences with migratory shorebird and wetland conservation, and was a keynote speaker at the first East Asian-Australasian Flyway Shorebird Science Meeting. If you are interested in more details about the Project or how to get involved, please go to the Project website, theoverwinteringproject.com or email [email protected].
In 2024 Kate completed an MRes. at Macquarie University NSW in more-than-human history of wetland conservation, specifically concerning Warn Marin/Western Port in Victoria. In October 2025 she began a PhD further exploring this area of research at the same institution.
Kate has a BA in printmaking from RMIT and has been exhibiting her work for over three decades. Her work has been shortlisted in many major art prizes around Australia, including the Silk Cut, Burnie, Geelong and Castlemaine Experimental Print Prizes, the Manly Artists Book Prize, and the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery National Works on Paper Prize. In 2025 she won the WAMA Environmental Art Award.
Below: Kate Gorringe-Smith, 2020, Homage to the Bee Tree, eco print with linocut and ink, 930 x 1220 mm. Finalist in the 2021 Burnie Print Prize. Acquired by Burnie Regional Art Gallery.
