Kalli Bednarz is an Indianapolis-based painter working across large-scale color field painting, installation, and narrative imagery. She holds a BFA in Visual Arts and Animation from Ball State University, and her background in figurative drawing and animation informs her use of gestural, animated line.

Working primarily with graphite and acrylic-modified gessos, Bednarz draws from fresco secco painting traditions to create matte, atmospheric color fields that translate the language of archaeology into visual experience.Though not an archaeologist, she is drawn to the archaeological field itself and to the mysteries of human histories. Her work is shaped by independent travel to archaeological sites abroad and sustained conversations with archaeologists, archivists, and historians.

Through exhibitions, public talks, and self-published records of these conversations, Bednarz creates environments that connect archaeologists with the surrounding community. Using immersive scale and active mark-making, her work introduces archaeological terminology and methods as visual, experiential forms of learning, inviting audiences to encounter archaeology as a living, accessible, and shared process.