In my work I am looking for connection. Connecting materials, forms, and ideas are all essential elements in my work. It is through this desire to connect, to link, to combine that I came to explore traditional joinery techniques in Japanese woodworking. This kind of woodworking is a perfect marriage of utility and aesthetics. Joinery inherently creates connection. Joints are tactile opportunities for two parts to come together and coexist seamlessly in a larger whole. They are thoughtfully designed to have very practical, specific purposes while embodying a kind of grace. These characteristics of joinery inspired and challenged me in the making of these sculptures. I learned new technical woodworking methods, embellished some, and invented some connections of my own. I want to create places of intersection (in my work) that open up possibilities for seemingly disparate elements to converge in a way that looks effortless and feels intuitively right. This is the beginning of a body of work that is ongoing and will continue exploring joinery techniques as metaphor and practice.

Kate Carr is an Alaska-born, New Mexico-based artist who says that “living in spaciousness” helps her “leave space in [my] work for things to occur.” Carr crafts her sculptures through repetitive processes like stacking and layering, using tactile everyday materials both soft and hard, such as plywood and felt. These works—which are often wall-mounted to resemble paintings—encompass a range of textures, densities, and weights. Although Carr’s sculptures are intensely material, they are formally abstract and rooted in a commitment to working with simple lines. Her works evoke the shaped canvases of the 1970s and ’80s, and she lists such feminist art pioneers as Agnes Martin, Eva Hesse, and Dorothea Rockburne among her influences.

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Galleri Urbane is sad to report the loss of artist Kate Carr. Kate passed away on April 27, 2017 due to complications from ovarian cancer. She was 40 years old. We first exhibited Kate's work in 2005, she was an inspiration to us, and such a pioneer for women in the arts and in life.

Kate Carr was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She graduated from Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vermont and received her MFA in sculpture from the University of Iowa. She has completed residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the Harwood Museum, Jentel, the MacDowell Colony, and the Ucross Foundation. She is also a recipient of a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant. Kate has lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 2007. Her work explores material relationships through repetition, juxtaposition, and contemplation.