Objects speak, connection is critical, and anything is worth collecting.
Karly Jean Kainz is an interdisciplinary artist from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art with an emphasis in Print & Narrative Forms from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Kainz worked as a printmaker and graphic designer at the Theaster Gates Studio in Chicago, IL preparing for shows including the Chicago Architectural Biennial in 2019 and designing for projects, such as Dorchester Industries. Kainz has shown in numerous national exhibitions including A Sense of Place at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta, Georgia and the Midwest Regional Exhibition at the Artlink Contemporary Gallery in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Kainz continues to show her work both nationally and internationally, being featured in the upcoming exhibition Text-ure 2024 at Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
Currently residing in New Mexico, Kainz is pursuing her Masters in Fine Art at New Mexico State University, with a primary focus on ceramics. Kainz’s research revolves around the concepts of materiality, collecting, and one’s connection to place.
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Tethered between places, my work explores the ways personal collections come and stay in our lives. My subject matter is informed by the shapes, forms, textures, and colors of the domestic and external spaces of my everyday environment. Through the use of clay, mortar, and foam, collected materials are embedded into sculptures, solidifying them into a physical form as an act of permanence.
Borrowing from the form and function of the concrete sculptural environments of midwestern grottos, my work is a material construction of devotion. The chaotic encrusted surfaces of grottos inspire me, offering a means to preserve material in a form that signifies divinity. These architectural structures continue to provide me with a sense of wonder, fueling my curiosity.
Traditionally trained as a printmaker, my approach to crafting three-dimensional forms stems from print concepts of repetition, layering, carving and screen printing. The repetitive nature of my artistic practice opens doors to accessing a transcendental state of mind. These moments harken back to my experiences with midwestern grottos, creating an experience for viewers that transforms the ordinary into something unexpected and extraordinary.
Photo credit: Yashoda Latkar