Kira Maria Shewfelt

Biography

Kira Maria Shewfelt received her MFA in Drawing and Painting from New York University, her M.A. in Art History from the University of Southern California, and B.A. in Comparative Literature from Yale University. She has taught undergraduate courses at NYU and Pepperdine University, as well as courses for local and international arts outreach programs including Proyecto Sitie, ArtWorxLA, Inner City Arts, and LAUSD’s Gifted and Talented program and considers social reflection and impact an important part of her practice. She has presented research on contemporary political graphics at the University of Versailles Saint Quentin and University College London and curates alternative outdoor exhibitions and artistic reunions through a venture entitled, alt.a.mira projects.

Her painting engages elements of storytelling and a translation of personal into shared experience. Taking influence from the literary and visual genres of Magical Realism, Symbolism and Romanticism, her work engages physical-spiritual unions, tangible, often athletic existentialism, and metaphor as a vulnerable offering for connection. She has shown across the United States, including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco Chicago and Miami, and internationally in Rio de Janeiro. Recent exhibitions include “Telescoping” with False Cast Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, “A Peripheral Reverie,” with Penske Projects, Montecito, CA, and “So Far,” and “Hot Tropics” with La Loma Projects, Pasadena, CA. 

Education

• MFA, New York University, 2015