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Kira Lynn Harris

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Kira Lynn Harris
Born1963 (age 60–61)
Los Angeles, California, United States
EducationUniversity of California at Santa Cruz
Alma materCalifornia Institute of the Arts

Kira Lynn Harris (born 1963) is an African-American mixed-media artist who currently lives and teaches in New York City.[1]

Life

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Kira Lynn Harris was born in 1963 in Los Angeles, California. Harris received her BA in Studio Art from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and then earned her MFA in Art from the California Institute of the Arts in 1998.

Career

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In addition to multiple solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Italy, Canada, and South Africa, Harris has also served as an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2001–2002), the Center for Photography at Woodstock (2004), St. Mary's College of Maryland (2005), Omi International Art Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art (2006).[2] Her work has been exhibited at many galleries, including MoMA PS1, Miami Art Museum, Bruno Marina Gallery, and the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts.[3][4] She has participated in the following group exhibitions: Blues for Smoke (MoCA and Whitney Museum), Black Light (White Noise Contemporary Art Museum and Freestyle Studio Museum Harlem).[5]

Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Time Out New York, and the Los Angeles Times, among others.[6][7] Critics have described her work as "minimal," making use of installation, drawing, photography, and video to express "formal concerns of space, light and the phenomenological with issues of individual subjectivity."[8][9] She has also made use of reflective surfaces like mirror or silver leaf to highlight the architecture of space.[10] Of her work, Harris explains, "My projects often provide a disorienting encounter for the viewer: in my installations I am concerned with destabilization and re-orientation. To achieve this I often create architectural and environmental interventions – by using light and reflective surfaces; by inverting subject and object or figure and ground; and/or by reversing up and down, exterior and interior."[11]

Harris has stated that her work is influenced by artists like James Turrell, Mark Rothko, and the Hudson River School painters. She also explained, "A lot of my interest in light came from being from Los Angeles, where the light is just everywhere. You have these huge expanses of sky".[12] She has also cited science fiction, as well as films and cityscapes like Metropolis and Mad Max as influences.[13]

Works

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Prizes and awards

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In 1998 Harris won the Lorser Feitelson Emerging Artist award. In 2003 she won the Harvestworks artist-in-residence video production grant.[18]

Personal life

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Harris now resides in New York City, New York and teaches art to both high schoolers and college students. She has been an assistant professor in the Department of Art and Music at John Jay College, as well as a part of the Art Faculty at Nightingale-Bamford School.[19][20]

References

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  1. ^ Biography: Kira Lynn Harris, re-title.com, 2015, archived from the original on 24 November 2015, retrieved 24 November 2015
  2. ^ "Kira Lynn Harris". Shiva Gallery. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  3. ^ "Kira Lynn Harris". Shiva Gallery. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  4. ^ ARTIST'S PROJECT: KIRA LYNN HARRIS, Esopus, Fall 2006, retrieved 24 November 2015
  5. ^ "Kira Lynn Harris". amt.parsons.edu. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  6. ^ Cotter, Holland (2 August 2002), "ART IN REVIEW; 'Ironic/Iconic' -- Kira Lynn Harris, Adia Millett and Kehinde Wiley", The New York Times, retrieved 24 November 2015
  7. ^ Knight, Christopher (29 October 2012), "Review: MOCA's 'Blues for Smoke' improvises and captivates", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 24 November 2015
  8. ^ Nengundi, Senga (2009), Kira Lynn Harris: Curated by Senga Nengudi, CUE Art Foundation, retrieved 24 November 2015
  9. ^ Caruth, Nicole (2010), Just Beyond Reality's Edge: Kira Lynn Harris, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, retrieved 24 November 2015
  10. ^ "Over 40, under the Radar: Eight Midcareer Artists Who Prove That Experience Trumps Novelty". Modern Painters. 23: 58–63.
  11. ^ Faculty: KIRA LYNN HARRIS, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2015, retrieved 24 November 2015
  12. ^ Sheets, Hilarie (1 March 2007), Waves of Light, ARTnews, retrieved 24 November 2015
  13. ^ "Kira Lynn Harris: Glittering Dystopias". Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  14. ^ "Just Beyond Reality's Edge: Kira Lynn Harris by Nicole J. Caruth". CUE Art Foundation. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  15. ^ "Kira Lynn Harris (Artist) in New York, NY (New York) from re-title.com". www.re-title.com. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  16. ^ "Just Beyond Reality's Edge: Kira Lynn Harris by Nicole J. Caruth". CUE Art Foundation. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  17. ^ Caruth, Nicole J. (21 September 2010). "Just Beyond Reality's Edge: Kira Lynn Harris". Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. 2010 (27): 90–99. doi:10.1215/10757163-2010-27-90. ISSN 1075-7163. S2CID 190701895.
  18. ^ "Kira Lynn Harris". Shiva Gallery. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  19. ^ "The Nightingale-Bamford School". The Nightingale-Bamford School. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  20. ^ "Kira Lynn Harris | John Jay College of Criminal Justice". www.jjay.cuny.edu. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
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