Jess Kiel-Wornson

Sculpture & Set Design

Jess Kiel-Wornson is a Minneapolis based multimedia artist. Using sculptural installation, collaged cultural artifact, text, drawing, and performance, she addresses the insidiousness of the systems of power in our surroundings. Her work speaks to the material consequence of trauma in our bodies and buildings and asks us to reframe our conversations about goodness, success, and identity away from individuals and toward the systems that allow and promote violence toward some bodies distinctly from others. She received her MFA from University of Illinois Champaign Urbana. Recent collaborations include Holy Doña (Cowles Center, Pedro Lander, 2019), Birds of the Future (Fresh Oysters, Charles Campbell, 2019), and Parking Ramp Project (Health Partners Parking Ramp, Pramilla Vasudevan, 2018). She is an activist, educator, auntie, and shop tech and sometimes wonders how her life would be different if she had found feminist theory before anti-depressants. She is tired of being told by the dominant paradigm that her heartbreak will make her stronger.