Kayle Karbowski
Kayle Karbowski is an undisciplined artist and facilitator living on the western banks of Lake Michigan, in the city currently called Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is the daughter of Jennifer Khurt—a mother, hometender, and bartender of over thirty years. Karbowski received her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 2015 and continues her education through para-academic community learning and ongoing self-directed research.
Karbowski’s studio practice moves between sculpture, installation, fibers, and performance in pursuit of the slippery poetics of perceived realities. They work through material, ritual gesture, and seasonal attention to consider how desire, interdependence, and embodied knowledge function within contemporary life. Alongside her studio practice, she develops community-centered projects that foreground collective care and creative agency.
In 2016, she co-founded the Milwaukee-based Grilled Cheese Grant, co-administering the microgrant with the artist-run collective After School Special through 2019. She later founded Other Dust, a social practice engaging mystic, esoteric, and folk modalities to cultivate interdependence and soft skill building. Through Other Dust, they received The Open Fund (supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation and Ruth Arts) in 2024 and 2025.
She is a recipient of the Mary L. Nohl Suitcase Export Fund Award (2016, 2024) and the MIAD + Ruth Arts Grant (2024). She has attended residencies at Walkaway House (North Adams, MA), MASS Gallery (Austin, TX), and High Desert Test Sites Work-Trade Residency (Joshua Tree, CA).
Keep up with Kayle on her website.
Cherry Cherry Boom Boom
Kayle Karbowski, “A Poem for You From the Stars”
Kayle Karbowski, “a scythe comes from the ground”
Kayle Karbowski, “Distaff”