California Fibers would like to introduce our new member, Brittany Kiertzner, a mixed media and textile fine artist from Southern California. Kiertzner is an enrolled member of the St Regis Mohawk Tribe and studied fine art at California State University Fullerton. Kiertzner explores critical materials that reframe her personal history into a contemporary context. Through a dynamic interplay of woven and stitched threads, her work is influenced by traditional Mohawk Iroquois splint basket making, embroidery, and raised beadwork.

She investigates themes of regeneration, authenticity, and subversion of materials through synthesizing the past. Kiertzner has shown her mixed media and textile-based work extensively in solo and juried exhibitions in California since 2007. Her work is in the permanent collection at Sasse Museum of Art. She manages her studio in Claremont, California.

Brittany Kiertzner’s work makes connections within loss and insecurity. It unravels the intrinsic vulnerability encapsulated within the dichotomy of life and death, particularly focusing on the subsequent generations of Indigenous women. The narrative navigates through the artist's endeavor to embody the inevitable social pressures that catalyze disintegration and impermanence.

In her body of work, the color red emerges as a potent symbol, signifying the prevailing silence and indifference that shrouds Indigenous women. A significant number of these women find themselves either missing or succumbing to violence. Kiertzner manifests abstract figurative depictions within her sculptural works. These bodies serve as both a commemoration of those who have been lost, capturing the essence of their absence, while also portraying the resilience of those who persist, navigating dysphoric conditions.