Kate McQuillen's paintings relate to ideas of "not-knowing:" improvisation, interpretation, breaking rules, instinct, and logic. She seeks out subject matters that relate to these topics across time periods, from epic Greek poetry to New German Cinema. Her imagery incorporates brushwork and gestural marks, and is rooted in the narrative of action painting and abstraction; but her strokes are flattened almost completely through printmaking processes, complicating notions of markmaking and mechanization.

A central aspect of the work is the breaking of printmaking rules: for example, she intentionally draws out moiré patterns, her squeegee goes too close to the edge of the screen, she uses uneven surfaces to create "kiss marks," and she floods the screen incorrectly. Each of these approaches is a technical mistake, but in her process they create a language for painting. They allow screens to act like brushes, surface transfers to build shapes, and for messiness and precision to exist together. 

McQuillen is particularly interested in the squeegee as a tool, and the ability it gives her to make works beyond the scope of her body. With each pass of the squeegee, works can change fully, across the whole image. The speed and power that comes with these tools, and the very slight separation of the hand from the surface, allows the work to walk a line between expression and mechanical techniques. 

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McQuillen runs her studio out of a collective printshop in Long Island City called Prints of Darkness. In 2018, she was a founding member of Super Dutchess (now called Below Grand), an artist-run micro-gallery on the Lower East Side. She has participated in artist residencies in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Chicago, amongst others, and has published numerous interviews and essays on the work of other artists. 

Massey Klein Gallery has presented two solo exhibitions featuring Kate McQuillen's paintings: A Thief With No Loot (2023) and Wave Amnesia (2021). The Gallery has additionally featured works by the artist at Untitled Art, Miami Beach; NADA House on Governors Island; Dallas Art Fair; and Future Fair NYC. 

Kate McQuillen holds a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art, and an MFA in Visual Arts and Print Media from York University. The artist has exhibited internationally including institutional exhibitions at IPCNY, Riverside Arts Center, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Columbia College Chicago, North Illinois University Art Museum, and the Hyde Park Art Center. She has been featured in The Brooklyn Rail, Art in Print, Hyperallergic, The Chicago Reader, Art Spiel, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Time Out Chicago, and Poetry Magazine.