NELLY KATE — STUDIO ARTIST

Expanded practice in sound treating access as a site for poetic translation.


CONTENTS

01 The Difference

02 nowisthe
03 Nevermind
04 FutureFluid

05 [Untitled] 6 Cylinders

06 I Hear You, But I Can’t Hear You
07 Transistors in Translation

08 ~~~~~”...derelict in uncharted space...”
09 pink moon

10 Into the Ground, Into the Body


STATEMENT

My work is motivated by care and a desire to make space for public imagination. I’m interested in ad-hoc solutions that create a sense of belonging. This can look like on-the-fly audio descriptions, live captions, provisional structures, and rearrangements of furniture.

My materials and methods are reflexive. I gravitate toward lo-fi mechanisms—such as reel-to-reel tape loops, transistor radios, photocopiers, and electronic synthesizers—because they reveal electromagnetic frequencies all around us. Their fluttering textures are like our complex embodiments, sensed differently by every being, from every position, in every moment.

For the last few years, I’ve made a lot of furniture, speakers, and screens with repurposed steel barrels. I like the labor, engineering, improvisation, care, and slowness this requires. I like the body-memory evident in the wear, tear, and filth.  And anyway, I believe our budgets reflect our values and I’d much rather pay people than generate more trash.

What if we have everything we need?


The objects I make set the stage for experiences that invite connection, drift, rest, and a relinquishment of clock time. When all these factors converge, I call that ecstatic magic and that’s what I strive for in my practice.


︎    ︎    ︎


H0ME • BIO • CV • ︎
Nelly Kate (she/her) is a late-Deaf sound artist who was raised in the American South. Her work takes the form of installation, performance, and print.


Over the past decade, Nelly has experienced fluctuations between late-deafness and hearing. This informs her creative research and insistence upon slowness, the awkwardness of inclusion, collaboration, and repetition.
In 2015, Nelly turned her focus to inaudible sound—exploring captions, sonic visualizations, and haptics. During her MFA candidacy at Cranbrook Academy of Art (Print Media ‘21), she developed a technique for utilizing suminagashi marbling and fluid cymatics to make ‘sound prints’.

Some of her favorite opportunities to-date include contributing to disability-led projects, Language of Lunacy (2025) and ‘...derelict in uncharted space...’ (2023) in Melbourne, Australia; residencies at Haystack’s Open Studio, Walkaway House, Wedding Cake House; performances at MIT, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Mint Museum, and Mattress Factory; lectures/workshops at Parsons School of Design, Virginia Commonwealth University, American University, Portland Art Museum, and The American University of Paris.

She’s currently a creative director with MIT Spatial Sound Lab and co-organizer of Boston Spatial Sound Community salons.

Currently accepting commissions for art + film direction, music supervision, captioning, image description, and alt-text. Adores opportunities to talk inclusive design + disability justice with art, design, and UX students.


SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Into the Ground, Into the Body x Justin Looper • Egleston Square Library • Boston, MA [2024]
pink moon x Gregory Beson • Dear Friend Books • Brooklyn, NY [2024]
Low Frequency Travel Agency (SOLO) • Black Iris Gallery • Richmond, VA [2013]
Haggle (Sound for Leslie Rogers) • Anderson Gallery • Richmond, VA [2013]
Interstitial Transduction • InLight • Richmond, VA [2012]

SELECTED PRESS
Nelly Kate decenters sound in new public art installation • Daily Free Press [2024]
Sound of Mettle • QC Nerve [2021]
Halls of Memories • Style Weekly [2015]
Sound Scavenging • Style Weekly [2014]
The Astonishing Nelly Kate • RVA Magazine [2011]

SELECTED SCREENINGS / PERFORMANCES
Language of Lunacy Collective (Fayen d’Evie, Jon Tjhia, Luke King, Justin Looper, Chelsea Clarke, Joseph Rizzo Naudi, Poppy Levison, Jenny Hector, Zena Cumpston, Hen Vaughan, Ebony Wightman, Jordan Valageorgiou, Adam Dusien, Liam Benson)
    MIT Theater Arts • Cambridge, MA [2025]
    Arts House — Melbourne, AUS [2025]
Transistors in Translation x Access Lab Library • MIT Theater Arts • Cambridge, MA [2024]
~~~~~‘...derelict in uncharted space...’ x Fayen d’Evie, Benjamin Hancock, Rebecca Bracewell, Andy Slater, Jon Tjhia, Lloyd Mst, Georgina Kleege, and Luke King
   Chunky Move • Melbourne Fringe Festival — Melbourne, AUS [2023]
Low Frequency Travel Agency
    TEDxRVA [2014]
    Black Iris Gallery [2014-Present]
And Then We Were Jumping (Score for Jordan Bruner x Eve Ensler)
    CutOut Fest—Querétaro, Mexico [2014]
    London International Animation [2014]
    Animation Block Party — Brooklyn, NY [2014]
    Fest Anca—Slovakia, Croatia [2014]
    Animafest — Zagreb [2014]
    Pictoplasma — Berlin [2014]
    Anima Festival — Brussels [2014]