Katelyn Kopenhaver (b. 1992) is an interdisciplinary artist and writer whose work moves between public intervention, performance, text and lens-based practices. She received her BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in 2016 and is based in Miami, Florida where she is a studio resident at Bakehouse Art Complex. She has received the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship (2021) and the Miami Individual Artists Grant (2024). Her work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Netflix documentaries and Der Greif Issue 18 curated by Hank Willis Thomas. Forthcoming and current exhibitions include the Every Woman Biennial 2026 at Pen + Brush (New York, NY) and F*ck Art at the Museum of Sex (Miami, FL).

Katelyn Kopenhaver creates work that interrogates the conditions of judgment and the dynamics of trust. As someone who has learned that what's on the surface is rarely the whole story, she makes work from within the conditions she critiques. Kopenhaver asks not who or what we trust but how, when and why. She uses familiar signifiers that expose how power circulates and behavior is shaped: QR codes, smiles, money, institutional formats, her body. Kopenhaver looks at what sits just beneath appearance: omitted information, patterns embedded in media language, and the institutional structures that shape what is seen and what is withheld. 

How do you decide to trust?