Rena Detrixhe is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Kansas City, MO. Through objects and installations, ephemeral sculpture, performance, drawings, and process-based work, she explores systems of value and cultural relations to land and the more-than-human world with attention to histories of injustice. Her research has been supported by multiple grants and residencies including: a Serenbe Co-Esistere Residency, Stoneleaf Retreat, Tallgrass Artist Residency at the Konza Prairie Biological Station, a two-year residency with Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City, and a three-year residency with the Tulsa Artist Fellowship among others.

Artist Statement

In Oklahoma, like most places, human presence has deeply altered the landscape. This red earth is the land of the Dust Bowl, the Trail of Tears, land runs and pipelines, fault lines and hydraulic fracturing. There is immense beauty and pride in this place and also profound sorrow. The refining and sifting of the soil and the imprinting of the pattern is a meditation on this past, a gesture of sensitivity, and the desire for understanding. I attempt to address the relationship between nature and human impact while suggesting the ubiquitousness and preciousness of the earth just below our feet.