Kat Ryals is a Brooklyn-based mixed media artist. Her work explores the dichotomies between natural and artificial, trash and treasure, sacred and profane, luxury and kitsch. Through sculpture, lens-based work, textile art, and site-specific installations, she emulates material culture and organic artifacts. Often replicating objects that symbolize high status—such as rugs, chandeliers, garments, and houseplants—Ryals subverts embedded notions of value and waste by incorporating cheap, found, and recycled materials.
Working across photography, printmaking, craft-based assemblage, and molding & casting, she directly engages with perceptions of authenticity, taste, and hierarchy. Her practice examines how cultural currencies shape personal desire, reinforcing systems of social and environmental disparity.
Raised in suburban Arkansas and the rural Cajun Acadiana region of Louisiana, Ryals’ artistic practice was shaped by time spent rummaging through thrift stores, daydreaming in ornate Catholic churches, and wandering forests, swamps, and gardens on her family’s farm. These experiences continue to inform her fascination with the aesthetics of excess, preservation, and decay.