Kayla Kelly was born and raised in Pungo, a swampy spot on the southeastern coast of Virginia. At a young age, generational knowledge about fiber construction techniques was passed on from both grandmothers. This has led to a lifelong obsession with the processes of creating and manipulating textiles. Always a scavenger for materials, her practice changes with each environment she haunts as she pushes the boundaries of what a textile can be constructed out of.
Kelly moved to Richmond in 2016 to attend Virginia Commonwealth University, vines from the forest were traded for electrical wires in alleys. During her studies she spent time focusing on ceramics, glass and fiber processes. She presented her work at The Hind Gallery (2018) and The Anderson (2019). Kayla received a BFA in Craft and Material Studies in the spring of 2021. In the summer of 2022, she shifted terrain drastically and moved to Tucson, Arizona. Shortly after, in 2023 she returned to glass by taking classes and beginning to work at the Sonoran Glass School. Here she has begun taking her weaving practice into the hot shop and has since displayed some work in the Tucson Sculpture Festival (2025) and is now represented in the Philabaum Glass Gallery.
“I am a process-based artist. For me, making work is mostly about the action of creating and working through a specific order of events. Weaving can be quite a mechanical process which I find satisfying and in some cases the results are predictable. For years I have been intrigued with the process of constructing forms from just single lines and now I have mostly shifted my focus to weaving with any material I can wrap my mind around. Plants taught me tenderness and consciousness of angles, threads and electrical wires have challenged my experiences with tension and density and now glass pushes me beyond my comfort zone involving communication around my practice of making. Weaving is often a reclusive task and bringing this into a social setting has been challenging yet fulfilling, leading me to push my woven forms while navigating and creating new techniques.” – Kayla Kelly
