Hi, I’m Kayla,

a photo-textile artist and designer from Massachusetts. My practice is rooted in handmade techniques like weaving, knitting, and embroidery, an approach shaped by my background in fashion design and my education at Parsons School of Design. I often blend artisanal and digital processes, working primarily with photography, both archival and my own, and reassembling these images through handwoven textiles that evoke the quiet, fragmented nature of memory.

I’m drawn to personal imagery, especially vintage family photos from the 1960s and ‘70s, and the way these visual artifacts carry meaning across generations. By weaving photographs, I explore how time distorts, preserves, and reshapes memory and identity, while bringing physicality and texture to images that might otherwise exist only in flat or digital forms.

My influences range from my own family history to the tactile slowness of fiber and the emotional immediacy of photography— a medium I fell in love with during my teenage years spent in a darkroom. I also find inspiration in local scenery and craft traditions I encounter when traveling, always with my camera by my side. But much of my work truly comes from a familiar place: both of my grandmothers taught me to knit and sew as a child, and my earliest photographs were of family members and the spaces we shared. These connections continue to shape my approach to both craft and image-making today.

I currently create original woven photographs in collections, collaborate with clients on custom pieces, and sell printed reproductions of my woven works.

All textile pieces currently available for sale are handmade with a lot of care- and a lot of love.

See my work in person!

Past exhibitions:

2025

June 12- July 12 at Bond Millen Gallery, EMERGE IX: Richmond, Virginia

April 5- April 27 at IA & A at Hillyer, Soft Archives: Washington, D.C.

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Read about it!

Recent press:

Kayla Dantz’s woven photographs hold up a mirror to the “fragmented nature of memory” - It’s Nice That