Spotlight Artist

Kayla Mattes

Pacific Coast
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Featured in New American Paintings

Artist Statement

 My work explores chaos and crisis in the digital age by slowing it down through a tactile process that is structurally tied to the screen. Rather than adding pigmented material to a woven canvas or a secondary hidden surface, my tapestries embrace the narrative and technological history embedded in the act of materializing thread into the woven grid. Instilled with jokes and visual fodder, I navigate grim issues like environmental havoc with humor and vibrancy. My recent body of work portrays cats as unexpected spectators of ecological change. As mascots of the Internet, cats have a powerful voice. Their disconcerting judgment can be felt through a glare, and their effortless virality has influence. The cats’ position as social onlookers becomes multilayered when analyzed through their cultural attachment to femininity, and humans’ persistent dismissal of their fiery disposition. By continuing the tradition of archiving culture through the coded medium of tapestry weaving, I employ cloth as a form of urgent communication.

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