Kayla Powers (b. 1988) is a place-based fiber artist living and working in Detroit, Michigan.
Kayla Powers makes ecologically focused textile art with and about the living world. Through the traditional practices of foraging, dyeing, weaving, and quilting, she explores the common threads of our shared humanity and what it means to be here now. The materials she works with - cotton, linen, wool, copper - come from the earth and ground her practice in time and place. The colors change with the season as she dyes fabric and yarn with plants. Her work comes from a place of intuition, curiosity, connection, reverence, and from ancestral knowledge expressed by hand.
Kayla holds a BA in Art History from Western Michigan University and an MFA in Fiber Art from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Stetson University in Deland, Florida, Cedar North in Cedar, Michigan and General Motors Design Center in Warren, Michigan among others. She was the 2020 recipient of a Knight Art Grant for Local Color, a public art installation featured in Detroit Month of Design. Kayla was awarded the President’s Award for Sustainability from Cranbrook Academy of Art, a Windgate Fellowship at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and was a nominee for the Outstanding Student Award from Surface Design Association.
