KT Powell's Bio

MEDIUM: Acrylic / Pen / Cyanotype Collage

KT Powell is a dynamic printmaker and primarily two-dimensional artist that uses collage and humor to inform the serious conceptual elements of her work, which is inspired by her unique personal upbringing in Washington state. The artist currently lives in Missoula, MT and recently graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Teaching Art K-12 certification. She was born and raised in Southeastern Washington State in an area that has the distinction of being named the “most contaminated nuclear area” in the western world. Her hometown of Richland was a secret government town built by the Army Corp of Engineers in 1943 to house employees needed to work at Hanford for the Manhattan Project. Engineers and employees began manufacturing plutonium for the nuclear development and implementation of the Atomic bomb, Fat Man, dropped on Nagasaki in World War 2 and it continued throughout out the Cold War Era, despite the devastating environmental factors affected by mishandling of radioactive waste. This peculiar upbringing and history experienced in this setting has informed the conceptual aspects of her work. Identity, hybridity, and industrialization are consistent themes represented figuratively and stylistically within her work and employ the application of colorful mixed media or collaging techniques to personalize and create more visual interest in her pieces. Paper, wood panel, and ceramic slabs are the basic materials that create the foundation of most of her artwork and visually reinforce the paint, ink, or various collaged items that are layered onto the surface. Stylistically, the artist’s work often has a “lampoon” quality or exaggerated element of interpretation when figures and objects are present, intended to offer some form of irony or humor to the often-serious contextual commentary.