Represented by Prairiebrooke Gallery in Kansas City.

Kelly Yarbrough is a Kansas-based artist and arts administrator whose work takes shape in the studio, the field, and spaces in between. Through large-scale, mixed media drawings, Kelly represents a sustained and evolving relationship with the tallgrass prairie—one of the most endangered ecosystems on Earth. Her work invites a sense of intimacy with place and seeks to foster a deeper literacy of the landscapes we each call home.

Kelly holds an MFA from Kansas State University and a BA in Art and English from Austin College. In 2016, she founded the Tallgrass Artist Residency, a program that hosts prairie-connected artists in the tiny rural community of Matfield Green, KS. She has connected with communities across Kansas through work with the Kansas Arts Commission, has taught foundations courses at Kansas State University, and served as Board President of Shadowcliff Lodge in Grand Lake, Colorado, helping to launch a new artist residency program. Between 2023-2025, Kelly participated in the inaugural Wildfire + Water Residency at PLAYA Summer Lake in Oregon. She is an Artist INC peer facilitator, founder of the Manhattan Seed Swap, a so-so gardener, and a pretty good dog mom.

Her writing and artwork have been featured in publications such as The New Territory Magazine, Contra Viento, and Symphony of the Flint Hills Field Journal, and she has presented at TEDx Austin College.

I think a lot about how people connect with their environments, and especially the role of native landscapes in cultivating a sense of belonging. Growing up in the rapidly-developing suburb of Plano, Texas in the 1990s gave me an impression that meaningful, beautiful places were somewhere else: a national park visited on vacation; an old-growth forest; a protected seaside. Kansas has become my chosen home because it defies easy expectations of beauty. It has shown me how to value deep roots in one’s own place. The tallgrass prairie is the most altered ecosystem on the planet and the majority of what’s left of it is in Kansas. Prairies are integral habitat for an abundance of resident and migratory wildlife, sites of food production for humans, keepers of precious soil and groundwater, and witnesses to countless stories that have shaped the histories and identities of our communities. But grasslands rarely get the spotlight. My studio practice celebrates the vitality, beauty and wildness of this often overlooked landscape.

I am also fascinated by the resilience of rural communities, and how my contemporaries are showing up in these spaces in innovative or unexpected ways. This interest drives my work leading the Tallgrass Artist Residency program based in Matfield Green, KS (pop. 50), and other socially-engaged projects such as Burn Ball and the Kansas Field Arts Forum.  I want my work to inspire others to become more land literate of their own places, and be moved to cherish them.