KATE REGISTER
Kate Register works across painting, décollage, and fiber based media, guided by an ongoing dialogue with material, process, and change. She rarely begins with a fixed image or predetermined plan. Each piece develops through intuition, adjustment, and close attention. Mistakes are not erased but folded into the work, becoming part of its history. Meaning grows through presence and engagement rather than control.
Her large scale paintings on raw canvas evolve gradually through layers of color, line, and shifting form. Without a set structure, the compositions emerge in real time as she responds to what the surface suggests next. The work often sits between abstraction and suggestion, allowing hints of atmosphere, memory, or figuration to appear without being fully defined.
Her décollages on wood incorporate weathered street posters, most often sourced from New York City. Register tears, sands, and rebuilds these layers to reveal traces of what came before. The physical disruption becomes part of the visual language. Beauty arises through erosion, reconstruction, and the tension between loss and discovery.
Her fiber works carry this same sensibility into a quieter and more deliberate format. Through careful placement of color, shape, and line, these pieces create rhythm and movement while maintaining clarity and restraint. Although materially different, they share the same attentiveness and sense of dialogue found in her paintings and collages.
Across all three mediums, Register’s practice centers on staying present as the work unfolds. The surface becomes a place of discovery rather than depiction. Through process, risk, and sustained attention, each piece reflects a journey of looking, responding, and allowing form to emerge naturally.