Artist statement

I make artwork using wood and fire, drawn to fire's power to transform and reveal. Using propane torches, I apply flame to unremarkable wooden objects, from weathered tree roots to construction cutoffs to cradled panels, stopping deliberately before the material is completely consumed. This restraint freezes a moment of elemental transformation, and the carbonized surfaces and patterns that emerge bring the essence and history of each piece into sharp focus.

BIO

Fire remains central to Kainz’s practice. Growing up on a farm in Wisconsin, fire was both comfort and necessity, as her family relied on burning salvaged wood for heat during long winters. Through the daily ritual of building fires and watching each log transform, she developed an intimate and enduring curiosity about wood’s materiality and the process of burning.

Before becoming an artist, Kainz was a neuroscientist studying the human visual system. Her shift from neural networks to tree roots and wood grain is a continuation of her fascination with shape and pattern in the natural world across microscopic and macroscopic scales.

She is represented by the Bromfield Gallery in Boston, MA, where her solo show Present Tense opened in March 2026.