KANDICE KARDELL

Artist Statement 

Living Surface begins with algae as a surface that receives light, records environmental change, and continues to transform long after it has been gathered. 

Through cyanotype, stitching, and knotting, each work extends a sustained practice of attention to the shoreline, where foraging becomes a way of learning with place. The exhibition traces interdependent ecologies through living materials whose forms continue to shift over time, revealing relationships between sea, land, and body. Guided by ecological grief and the practice of un-selfing, these works linger with mortality, change, and return, asking what becomes visible when attention is directed beyond the human. 

Artist Biography 

Kandice Kardell is a visual artist and educator originally from the Sonoran desert, where the vastness, textures, and material conditions of the landscape continue to inform her work. Since 2021, she has been based in Portugal, living and working near the sea—an ongoing geographical shift that shapes her engagement with land, water, and ecological processes.

Kardell creates two- and three-dimensional textile works using foraged and harvested algae as both material and subject. Through biomaterial research, weaving, stitching, solar printing, and plant-derived dyes, she transforms algae into shroud-like forms, sculptural objects, and wall-based works that explore the relationship between body, landscape, and ecological change. Working with materials that are both long-lasting and biodegradable, her practice examines impermanence, mortality, and more-than-human entanglements through processes shaped by environmental conditions, time, and touch. Guided by ecological grief and the philosophy of un-selfing, Kardell’s work invites viewers to encounter mortality and loss not as endpoints, but as shared ecological processes unfolding through cycles of transformation and return.

Kardell holds a bachelor’s degree in art and a master’s degree in English. She began her career as a teaching artist, working with diverse immigrant and refugee communities in the United States, experiences that shaped her belief in art as a universal language capable of crossing cultural and linguistic boundaries. Her background in linguistics and education led her to integrate art into language instruction and interdisciplinary learning across university and K–12 settings.

Her work has been exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally in both solo and group exhibitions, and is held in private collections in the United States and abroad. Alongside her studio practice, Kardell continues to teach and collaborate on arts-integration and cultural mediation projects worldwide, exploring the intersections of art, education, ecology, and communication.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2026 The Living Surface, Manywhere Gallery, Porto, Portugal
2024 Spinning Away, Allmo Gallery, Porto, Portugal
2023 Portraits and Stills, Cave Bombarda, Porto, Portugal
2021 Distanced, Desert Crafted, Phoenix, AZ, USA
2000 Synapse, Art One Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, USA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2026 IGNITION, A Homem Mau, Lisboa, Portugal
2025 Resonant Matter, Allmo, Porto, Portugal
2025 Virtual Open Studios, GlogauAIR, Online
2025 MESCLA, Mouco, Porto, Portugal
2025 TOWARD 2050, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, AZ
2024 100x100x100, Atelier 968, Porto, Portugal
2024 Co-Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism, Women of the Hall, Seneca Falls, NY
2021 Light Sensitive, Art Intersection, Gilbert, AZ, USA
2020 Light Sensitive, Art Intersection, Gilbert, AZ, USA
2019 Choice Cuts 3, The Lodge, Phoenix, AZ
2008 Hispanic Heritage Blue, Island Public Library, Blue Island, IL, USA 
2005 Intermedia, Gallery 100, Tempe, AZ, USA
2004 Carry On, The Annex, Phoenix, AZ, USA
2004 Small Works, Crisis Gallery, Phoenix, AZ, USA
2004 Live, Paper Heart Gallery, Phoenix, AZ, USA
2003 Baggage, The Annex, Phoenix, AZ, USA
2003 Choke, Paper Heart Gallery, Phoenix, AZ, USA
2003 3x3x3, Thought Crime, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Education

2005 BFA Intermedia Studio Art, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
2015 MA English, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

Residencies

2026 Art’n Fiber, Quilt Academy of Sweden, Uppsala, Sweden
2025 GlogauAIR Online, GlogauAIR, Berlin, Germany
2019—2021 Tempe Resident Studio Artist, Tempe Community Arts, Tempe, AZ
2018—2019 Molly BlankFund/Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
2007—2009 Resident Teaching Artist, Changing Worlds, Chicago, IL
2006—2007 Resident Teaching Artist, After School Matters, Gallery 37, Chicago, IL

Artist Workshops and Presentations

2026 Algae, Textiles, and Ecology: Making Yarn from Seaweed, Manywhere Gallery, Porto, PT
2026 Algae Cyanotypes: Experimental Botanical Printing and Toning, Manywhere Gallery, Porto, PT
2026 Artist Talk, GlogauAIR, Berlin, Germany
2019—2020 Mathematical Printmaking, arts integration workshop series, Tempe Community Arts, Tempe School District #3, AZ
2019—2020 Artist Books arts integration workshop series, Tempe Community Arts, Tempe School District #3, AZ
2017 Using Visual Literacy to Support Critical Thinking, and Writing, CamTESOL, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
2016 Cultural Identity and Visual Storytelling, arts integration workshop (series), Access Microscholarship Program, Hpa-An and Hopone, Myanmar
2016 Visual Literacy for the EFL Classroom, arts integration workshop(series), Access Microscholarship Program, Mawlamyine, Myanmar
2009 Judaism and Islam: Collaborative Quilt Making, youth workshop, KAM Isaiah Israel, Chicago, IL
2009 Printmaking and Reflective Practices of Sankofa, arts integration teacher training, Whittier Elementary School, Chicago, IL
2008 Roots: A Community Map of Immigration, community workshop, Albany Park Community Center, Chicago, IL
2007—2009 Silk Painting & Family Oral Histories, arts integration workshop series, Changing Worlds, Chicago, IL
2006—2007 Mural Painting Past, Present and Future, apprenticeship series, After School Matters, Gallery 37, Chicago, IL
2000 Slide Slam Artist Talk, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ