jessica wildman katz

Jessica Wildman Katz (b.1987) is a mother, musician, poet, gardener, and artist based in Highland Park, MI. Creative self-sufficiency is at the heart of Jessica’s craft where she explores handwork as a slow entrance to magic. Her careful and deliberate work represents an erotic unfolding where tension, intimacy, and transformation vivify the slippery yet undeniable bonds between humans, the world we share, and the great unknown.

Her kaleidoscopic practice evolves from an analog photography background capturing uncanny slice-of-life moments, fabricating absurd cameras, and constructing surrealist tableaux. Her experience as an apprentice to a builder specializing in historic home restoration fostered her devotion to the poetry of material, labor, and process. Heritage craft, self-taught skills, and formal training blend with a resourceful, ecological approach where she reimagines discarded and cast-off materials, reuses elements from past projects, and incorporates the bounty cultivated in her backyard.

She is a first generation college graduate, earning her BFA and MFA from Wayne State University where she received the Award of Excellence from the Academy of Scholars for her creative research. Her work has been presented at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, MoCAD, and Muskegon Museum of Art, among others. She maintains a live-performance practice, recently activating a plethora of public spaces in Detroit-Metro with her performance-turned-short film Motherling, which premiered on public access television on Mother’s Day 2025.