KATE DAW (1965–2020) was a significant figure within the Australian art community, exhibiting widely, nationally and internationally, since 1992. Recent exhibitions include Unfinished Business, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne and All the Better to See You With: Fairy Tales Transformed, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne (both 2018); Telling Tales: Excursions in Narrative Form, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2016); 19th Biennale of Sydney and Spring1883 (both 2014); Seven Art, Delhi and the India Art Fair (both 2013); and a major solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2005. In 2006 Daw completed her PhD at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, where she was Head of the School of Art (2017–20) and previously Head of Painting.
Daw was always interested in involving other people in her art practice, and worked on numerous collaborative projects with artists in India, Scotland and throughout Australia. She was also particularly focussed on bringing younger female artists into dialogue. In 2011, she completed a large-scale permanent artwork, Civil Twilight End at Docklands, Melbourne with frequent collaborator, Stewart Russell.
She curated numerous exhibitions including The Enigma Code, Sarah Scout Presents (2018); and Cock and Bull (2009) and Bird Girls (2007), both with Vikki McInnes at the Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne. Daw received many awards and grants, including the prestigious Samstag Scholarship. She undertook residencies at the Asialink studio in India, the Glasgow School of Art, the Victorian Tapestry Workshop and IASKA, among others and in 2010 she undertook the inaugural Basil Sellers Fellowship with Stewart Russell at Melbourne's MCG. Her work is held in numerous private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, University of Melbourne, Monash University and Artbank.